Licensing and citation
Quantarctica and all datasets distributed with it are distributed under a CC BY 4.0 license. Users must cite all original datasets used in their work. Citation information is available in the layer metadata.
When publishing maps, figures, or other products created using Quantarctica, please cite:
Matsuoka, K., Skoglund, A., Wendt, L., Mahagaonkar, A., Tronstad, S., Cajiao, D., Fraser, A., Hills, B., Leihy, R., Liggett, D., Moreau, S., Nakayama, Y., Noël, B., Paxman, G., Poinelli, M., Ritz, C., Ruppel, A., Scheinert, M., Seyboth, E., & Trusel, L. (2026). Quantarctica Version 4: Integrated Geospatial Data Package for Antarctica, the Southern Ocean, and Subantarctic Islands [Dataset], Norwegian Polar Institute. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21334/npolar.2026.1da42c46
Suggested acknowledgement for publications
This work benefited from the Quantarctica geospatial data package developed and maintained by the Norwegian Polar Institute.
FAQ
- Installation
- Data
- Troubleshooting
The uncompressed package is about 14 GB. The download size is 9,6 GB (zip file).
You need QGIS 3.44.15 (or newer), which is the current Long Term Release of the software at the time of Quantarctica’s release. You also need Quantarctica’s project file (Quantarctica4.qgz) and datasets. You get all this on our Download page. NOTE: If you’re not using Windows, but Mac or Linux, please download QGIS 3.44.15 from QGIS’s downloads page.
Older versions might not load the Quantarctica project with its layers and settings completely or correctly, so we strongly recommend updating to QGIS 3.44.15.
The Quantarctica 4 package includes:
- Simple and detailed basemaps
- Satellite image mosaics and terrain rasters
- Datasets for 9 different scientific themes
See a full list of included datasets, citation information, and preview images in our Data Catalog.
Yes. However, the older versions are “as is”.
Though QGIS is very good at importing many different types of data, there are certain steps you can take to make your data “Quantarctica-friendly,” or easily imported by other Quantarctica users. We have published a guide about Making Quantarctica-Friendly Datasets (PDF, 1 MB).
Save your project file containing only the data layers you want to include in Quantarctica4, and open the project file in a new QGIS 3.44.15 session. In the data layer panel, mark all the entries, right-click on any of them, and select Copy Layer(s). Inside a QGIS instance of Quantarctica4, right-click somewhere in the blank part of the data layer panel, and select Paste Layer/Group.
Note that migrating layers from one project file to another might not preserve all layer settings.
No. An Internet connection is required only for downloading the package. Once you’ve downloaded Quantarctica, you can take it with you anywhere!
We recommend that you use a download server close to you. If a particular mirror is unstable, slow or down, try a different one.
If you have problems related to QGIS, please visit QGIS website.
To resolve Quantarctica-specific problems or file a Quantarctica-specific bug report, please contact us.