Articles | Volume 12, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-1805-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-1805-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Data description paper
| 
18 Aug 2020
Data description paper |
| 18 Aug 2020
| 18 Aug 2020
Glacier shrinkage in the Alps continues unabated as revealed by a new glacier inventory from Sentinel-2
Frank Paul
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Philipp Rastner
Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Roberto Sergio Azzoni
Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan,
Milan, Italy
Guglielmina Diolaiuti
Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan,
Milan, Italy
Davide Fugazza
Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan,
Milan, Italy
Raymond Le Bris
Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Johanna Nemec
ENVEO IT GmbH, Innsbruck, Austria
Antoine Rabatel
Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement, Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, Grenoble, France
Mélanie Ramusovic
Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement, Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, Grenoble, France
Gabriele Schwaizer
ENVEO IT GmbH, Innsbruck, Austria
Claudio Smiraglia
Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan,
Milan, Italy
Related authors
Ines Dussaillant, Romain Hugonnet, Matthias Huss, Etienne Berthier, Jacqueline Bannwart, Frank Paul, and Michael Zemp
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-323, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-323, 2024
Preprint under review for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Our research observes glacier mass changes worldwide from 1976 to 2023, revealing an alarming increase in melt, especially in the last decade and a record year 2023. By combining field and satellite observations, we provide annual mass changes for all glaciers in the world, showing significant contributing to global sea level rise. This work underscores the need for ongoing local monitoring and global climate action to mitigate the effects of glacier loss and its broader environmental impacts.
Johannes Reinthaler and Frank Paul
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-989, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-989, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Since the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA) around 1850, glaciers in the European Alps have melted considerably. We collected LIA glacier extents, calculated changes using geoinformatics, and found a 57 % decrease in area (4211 km² to 1806 km²) and a 65 % decrease in volume (281 km³ to 100 km³) by 2015. The average glacier surface lowering was 43 m. After 2000, elevation change rates tripled. Over 1800 glaciers melted away completely, impacting entire regions.
Frank Paul, Livia Piermattei, Désirée Treichler, Lin Gilbert, Luc Girod, Andreas Kääb, Ludivine Libert, Thomas Nagler, Tazio Strozzi, and Jan Wuite
The Cryosphere, 16, 2505–2526, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2505-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2505-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Glacier surges are widespread in the Karakoram and have been intensely studied using satellite data and DEMs. We use time series of such datasets to study three glacier surges in the same region of the Karakoram. We found strongly contrasting advance rates and flow velocities, maximum velocities of 30 m d−1, and a change in the surge mechanism during a surge. A sensor comparison revealed good agreement, but steep terrain and the two smaller glaciers caused limitations for some of them.
Tazio Strozzi, Andreas Wiesmann, Andreas Kääb, Thomas Schellenberger, and Frank Paul
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-44, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-44, 2022
Revised manuscript not accepted
Short summary
Short summary
Knowledge on surface velocity of glaciers and ice caps contributes to a better understanding of a wide range of processes related to glacier dynamics, mass change and response to climate. Based on the release of historical satellite radar data from various space agencies we compiled nearly complete mosaics of winter ice surface velocities for the 1990's over the Eastern Arctic. Compared to the present state, we observe a general increase of ice velocities along with a retreat of glacier fronts.
Levan G. Tielidze, Gennady A. Nosenko, Tatiana E. Khromova, and Frank Paul
The Cryosphere, 16, 489–504, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-489-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-489-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The new Caucasus glacier inventory derived from manual delineation of glacier outlines based on medium-resolution (Landsat, Sentinel) and high-resolution (SPOT) satellite imagery shows the accelerated glacier area loss over the last 2 decades (2000–2020). This new glacier inventory will improve our understanding of climate change impacts at a regional scale and support related modelling studies by providing high-quality validation data.
Martin Horwath, Benjamin D. Gutknecht, Anny Cazenave, Hindumathi Kulaiappan Palanisamy, Florence Marti, Ben Marzeion, Frank Paul, Raymond Le Bris, Anna E. Hogg, Inès Otosaka, Andrew Shepherd, Petra Döll, Denise Cáceres, Hannes Müller Schmied, Johnny A. Johannessen, Jan Even Øie Nilsen, Roshin P. Raj, René Forsberg, Louise Sandberg Sørensen, Valentina R. Barletta, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Per Knudsen, Ole Baltazar Andersen, Heidi Ranndal, Stine K. Rose, Christopher J. Merchant, Claire R. Macintosh, Karina von Schuckmann, Kristin Novotny, Andreas Groh, Marco Restano, and Jérôme Benveniste
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 411–447, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-411-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-411-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Global mean sea-level change observed from 1993 to 2016 (mean rate of 3.05 mm yr−1) matches the combined effect of changes in water density (thermal expansion) and ocean mass. Ocean-mass change has been assessed through the contributions from glaciers, ice sheets, and land water storage or directly from satellite data since 2003. Our budget assessments of linear trends and monthly anomalies utilise new datasets and uncertainty characterisations developed within ESA's Climate Change Initiative.
Andreas Kääb, Mylène Jacquemart, Adrien Gilbert, Silvan Leinss, Luc Girod, Christian Huggel, Daniel Falaschi, Felipe Ugalde, Dmitry Petrakov, Sergey Chernomorets, Mikhail Dokukin, Frank Paul, Simon Gascoin, Etienne Berthier, and Jeffrey S. Kargel
The Cryosphere, 15, 1751–1785, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1751-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1751-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Hardly recognized so far, giant catastrophic detachments of glaciers are a rare but great potential for loss of lives and massive damage in mountain regions. Several of the events compiled in our study involve volumes (up to 100 million m3 and more), avalanche speeds (up to 300 km/h), and reaches (tens of kilometres) that are hard to imagine. We show that current climate change is able to enhance associated hazards. For the first time, we elaborate a set of factors that could cause these events.
Franz Goerlich, Tobias Bolch, and Frank Paul
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 3161–3176, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3161-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3161-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This work indicates all glaciers in the Pamir that surged between 1988 and 2018 as revealed by different remote sensing data, mainly Landsat imagery. We found ~ 200 surging glaciers for the entire mountain range and detected the minimum and maximum extents of most of them. The smallest surging glacier is ~ 0.3 km2. This inventory is important for further research on the surging behaviour of glaciers and has to be considered when processing glacier changes (mass, area) of the region.
Michael Zemp, Matthias Huss, Nicolas Eckert, Emmanuel Thibert, Frank Paul, Samuel U. Nussbaumer, and Isabelle Gärtner-Roer
The Cryosphere, 14, 1043–1050, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1043-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1043-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Comprehensive assessments of global glacier mass changes have been published at multi-annual intervals, typically in IPCC reports. For the years in between, we present an approach to infer timely but preliminary estimates of global-scale glacier mass changes from glaciological observations. These ad hoc estimates for 2017/18 indicate that annual glacier contributions to sea-level rise exceeded 1 mm sea-level equivalent, which corresponds to more than a quarter of the currently observed rise.
Daniel Falaschi, Andreas Kääb, Frank Paul, Takeo Tadono, Juan Antonio Rivera, and Luis Eduardo Lenzano
The Cryosphere, 13, 997–1004, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-997-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-997-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
In March 2007, the Leñas Glacier in the Central Andes of Argentina collapsed and released an ice avalanche that travelled a distance of 2 km. We analysed aerial photos, satellite images and field evidence to investigate the evolution of the glacier from the 1950s through the present day. A clear potential trigger of the collapse could not be identified from available meteorological and seismic data, nor could a significant change in glacier geometry leading to glacier instability be detected.
Nico Mölg, Tobias Bolch, Philipp Rastner, Tazio Strozzi, and Frank Paul
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 1807–1827, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1807-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1807-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Knowledge about the size and location of glaciers is essential to understand impacts of climatic changes on the natural environment. Therefore, we have produced an inventory of all glaciers in some of the largest glacierized mountain regions worldwide. Many large glaciers are covered by a rock (debris) layer, which also changes their reaction to climatic changes. Thus, we have also mapped this debris layer for all glaciers. We have mapped almost 28000 glaciers covering ~35000 km2.
Christopher J. Merchant, Frank Paul, Thomas Popp, Michael Ablain, Sophie Bontemps, Pierre Defourny, Rainer Hollmann, Thomas Lavergne, Alexandra Laeng, Gerrit de Leeuw, Jonathan Mittaz, Caroline Poulsen, Adam C. Povey, Max Reuter, Shubha Sathyendranath, Stein Sandven, Viktoria F. Sofieva, and Wolfgang Wagner
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 511–527, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-511-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-511-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
Climate data records (CDRs) contain data describing Earth's climate and should address uncertainty in the data to communicate what is known about climate variability or change and what range of doubt exists. This paper discusses good practice for including uncertainty information in CDRs for the essential climate variables (ECVs) derived from satellite data. Recommendations emerge from the shared experience of diverse ECV projects within the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative.
Jacqueline Huber, Alison J. Cook, Frank Paul, and Michael Zemp
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 115–131, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-115-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-115-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
A glacier inventory of the AP (63°–70° S), consisting of glacier outlines accompanied by glacier-specific parameters (i.e., elevation distribution, slope, aspect, thickness and volume), was achieved by digitally combining already-existing data sets. This resulted in 1589 glaciers, covering an area of 95 273 km2. These freely available data provide new insights into AP glaciers, their behavior in response to a changing climate and their corresponding contribution to sea level rise.
F. Paul
The Cryosphere, 9, 2201–2214, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-2201-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-2201-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
This study uses animations of freely available Landsat images (acquired over 25 years) to reveal glacier flow and surge dynamics in the central Karakoram. The animations provide a holistic view on the timing and variability of glacier dynamics that is hard to obtain by other more quantitative methods. Among others, the study reveals that most surging glaciers are comparably small, steep and debris-free, with a wide range of advance rates and durations, overlapping with non-surge-type glaciers.
L. Carturan, R. Filippi, R. Seppi, P. Gabrielli, C. Notarnicola, L. Bertoldi, F. Paul, P. Rastner, F. Cazorzi, R. Dinale, and G. Dalla Fontana
The Cryosphere, 7, 1339–1359, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-1339-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-1339-2013, 2013
Marin Kneib, Amaury Dehecq, Adrien Gilbert, Auguste Basset, Evan S. Miles, Guillaume Jouvet, Bruno Jourdain, Etienne Ducasse, Luc Beraud, Antoine Rabatel, Jérémie Mouginot, Guillem Carcanade, Olivier Laarman, Fanny Brun, and Delphine Six
The Cryosphere, 18, 5965–5983, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5965-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5965-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Avalanches contribute to increasing the accumulation on mountain glaciers by redistributing snow from surrounding mountains slopes. Here we quantified the contribution of avalanches to the mass balance of Argentière Glacier in the French Alps, by combining satellite and field observations to model the glacier dynamics. We show that the contribution of avalanches locally increases the accumulation by 60–70 % and that accounting for this effect results in less ice loss by the end of the century.
Rasoul Eskandari, Nicola Genzano, Davide Fugazza, and Marco Scaioni
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLVIII-3-2024, 147–154, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-3-2024-147-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-3-2024-147-2024, 2024
Etienne Ducasse, Romain Millan, Jonas Kvist Andersen, and Antoine Rabatel
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2662, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2662, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Our study examines glacier movement in the tropical Andes from 2013 to 2022 using satellite data. Despite challenges like small glacier size and frequent cloud cover, we tracked annual speeds and seasonal changes. We found stable annual speeds but significant shifts between wet and dry seasons, likely due to changes in meltwater production and glacier-bedrock conditions. This research enhances understanding of how tropical glaciers react to climate change.
Ines Dussaillant, Romain Hugonnet, Matthias Huss, Etienne Berthier, Jacqueline Bannwart, Frank Paul, and Michael Zemp
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-323, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-323, 2024
Preprint under review for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Our research observes glacier mass changes worldwide from 1976 to 2023, revealing an alarming increase in melt, especially in the last decade and a record year 2023. By combining field and satellite observations, we provide annual mass changes for all glaciers in the world, showing significant contributing to global sea level rise. This work underscores the need for ongoing local monitoring and global climate action to mitigate the effects of glacier loss and its broader environmental impacts.
Nilo Lima-Quispe, Denis Ruelland, Antoine Rabatel, Waldo Lavado-Casimiro, and Thomas Condom
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2370, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2370, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study estimated the water balance of Lake Titicaca using an integrated modeling framework that considers natural hydrological processes and net irrigation consumption. The proposed approach was implemented at a daily scale for a period of 35 years. This framework is able to simulate lake water levels with good accuracy over a wide range of hydroclimatic conditions. The findings demonstrate that a simple representation of hydrological processes is suitable for use in poorly-gauged regions.
Nicola Genzano, Davide Fugazza, Rasoul Eskandari, and Marco Scaioni
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLVIII-2-2024, 99–106, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-2-2024-99-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-2-2024-99-2024, 2024
Alexis Caro, Thomas Condom, Antoine Rabatel, Nicolas Champollion, Nicolás García, and Freddy Saavedra
The Cryosphere, 18, 2487–2507, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2487-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2487-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The glacier runoff changes are still unknown in most of the Andean catchments, thereby increasing uncertainties in estimating water availability, especially during the dry season. Here, we simulate glacier evolution and related glacier runoff changes across the Andes between 2000 and 2019. Our results indicate a glacier reduction in 93 % of the catchments, leading to a 12 % increase in glacier melt. These results can be downloaded and integrated with discharge measurements in each catchment.
Johannes Reinthaler and Frank Paul
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-989, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-989, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Since the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA) around 1850, glaciers in the European Alps have melted considerably. We collected LIA glacier extents, calculated changes using geoinformatics, and found a 57 % decrease in area (4211 km² to 1806 km²) and a 65 % decrease in volume (281 km³ to 100 km³) by 2015. The average glacier surface lowering was 43 m. After 2000, elevation change rates tripled. Over 1800 glaciers melted away completely, impacting entire regions.
Daniel Falaschi, Atanu Bhattacharya, Gregoire Guillet, Lei Huang, Owen King, Kriti Mukherjee, Philipp Rastner, Tandong Yao, and Tobias Bolch
The Cryosphere, 17, 5435–5458, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5435-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5435-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Because glaciers are crucial freshwater sources in the lowlands surrounding High Mountain Asia, constraining short-term glacier mass changes is essential. We investigate the potential of state-of-the-art satellite elevation data to measure glacier mass changes in two selected regions. The results demonstrate the ability of our dataset to characterize glacier changes of different magnitudes, allowing for an increase in the number of inaccessible glaciers that can be readily monitored.
Arthur Bayle, Bradley Z. Carlson, Anaïs Zimmer, Sophie Vallée, Antoine Rabatel, Edoardo Cremonese, Gianluca Filippa, Cédric Dentant, Christophe Randin, Andrea Mainetti, Erwan Roussel, Simon Gascoin, Dov Corenblit, and Philippe Choler
Biogeosciences, 20, 1649–1669, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1649-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1649-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Glacier forefields have long provided ecologists with a model to study patterns of plant succession following glacier retreat. We used remote sensing approaches to study early succession dynamics as it allows to analyze the deglaciation, colonization, and vegetation growth within a single framework. We found that the heterogeneity of early succession dynamics is deterministic and can be explained well by local environmental context. This work has been done by an international consortium.
M. Scaioni, A. Malekian, and D. Fugazza
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLVIII-M-1-2023, 293–300, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-M-1-2023-293-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-M-1-2023-293-2023, 2023
Giacomo Traversa, Davide Fugazza, and Massimo Frezzotti
The Cryosphere, 17, 427–444, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-427-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-427-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Megadunes are fields of huge snow dunes present in Antarctica and on other planets, important as they present mass loss on the leeward side (glazed snow), on a continent characterized by mass gain. Here, we studied megadunes using remote data and measurements acquired during past field expeditions. We quantified their physical properties and migration and demonstrated that they migrate against slope and wind. We further proposed automatic detections of the glazed snow on their leeward side.
A. Malekian, D. Fugazza, and M. Scaioni
ISPRS Ann. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., X-4-W1-2022, 459–466, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-4-W1-2022-459-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-4-W1-2022-459-2023, 2023
Rubén Basantes-Serrano, Antoine Rabatel, Bernard Francou, Christian Vincent, Alvaro Soruco, Thomas Condom, and Jean Carlo Ruíz
The Cryosphere, 16, 4659–4677, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4659-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4659-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We assessed the volume variation of 17 glaciers on the Antisana ice cap, near the Equator. We used aerial and satellite images for the period 1956–2016. We highlight very negative changes in 1956–1964 and 1979–1997 and slightly negative or even positive conditions in 1965–1978 and 1997–2016, the latter despite the recent increase in temperatures. Glaciers react according to regional climate variability, while local humidity and topography influence the specific behaviour of each glacier.
Frank Paul, Livia Piermattei, Désirée Treichler, Lin Gilbert, Luc Girod, Andreas Kääb, Ludivine Libert, Thomas Nagler, Tazio Strozzi, and Jan Wuite
The Cryosphere, 16, 2505–2526, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2505-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2505-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Glacier surges are widespread in the Karakoram and have been intensely studied using satellite data and DEMs. We use time series of such datasets to study three glacier surges in the same region of the Karakoram. We found strongly contrasting advance rates and flow velocities, maximum velocities of 30 m d−1, and a change in the surge mechanism during a surge. A sensor comparison revealed good agreement, but steep terrain and the two smaller glaciers caused limitations for some of them.
V. Belloni, D. Fugazza, and M. Di Rita
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLIII-B1-2022, 367–373, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIII-B1-2022-367-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIII-B1-2022-367-2022, 2022
Tazio Strozzi, Andreas Wiesmann, Andreas Kääb, Thomas Schellenberger, and Frank Paul
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-44, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-44, 2022
Revised manuscript not accepted
Short summary
Short summary
Knowledge on surface velocity of glaciers and ice caps contributes to a better understanding of a wide range of processes related to glacier dynamics, mass change and response to climate. Based on the release of historical satellite radar data from various space agencies we compiled nearly complete mosaics of winter ice surface velocities for the 1990's over the Eastern Arctic. Compared to the present state, we observe a general increase of ice velocities along with a retreat of glacier fronts.
Levan G. Tielidze, Gennady A. Nosenko, Tatiana E. Khromova, and Frank Paul
The Cryosphere, 16, 489–504, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-489-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-489-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The new Caucasus glacier inventory derived from manual delineation of glacier outlines based on medium-resolution (Landsat, Sentinel) and high-resolution (SPOT) satellite imagery shows the accelerated glacier area loss over the last 2 decades (2000–2020). This new glacier inventory will improve our understanding of climate change impacts at a regional scale and support related modelling studies by providing high-quality validation data.
Martin Horwath, Benjamin D. Gutknecht, Anny Cazenave, Hindumathi Kulaiappan Palanisamy, Florence Marti, Ben Marzeion, Frank Paul, Raymond Le Bris, Anna E. Hogg, Inès Otosaka, Andrew Shepherd, Petra Döll, Denise Cáceres, Hannes Müller Schmied, Johnny A. Johannessen, Jan Even Øie Nilsen, Roshin P. Raj, René Forsberg, Louise Sandberg Sørensen, Valentina R. Barletta, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Per Knudsen, Ole Baltazar Andersen, Heidi Ranndal, Stine K. Rose, Christopher J. Merchant, Claire R. Macintosh, Karina von Schuckmann, Kristin Novotny, Andreas Groh, Marco Restano, and Jérôme Benveniste
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 411–447, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-411-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-411-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Global mean sea-level change observed from 1993 to 2016 (mean rate of 3.05 mm yr−1) matches the combined effect of changes in water density (thermal expansion) and ocean mass. Ocean-mass change has been assessed through the contributions from glaciers, ice sheets, and land water storage or directly from satellite data since 2003. Our budget assessments of linear trends and monthly anomalies utilise new datasets and uncertainty characterisations developed within ESA's Climate Change Initiative.
Andrea Fischer, Gabriele Schwaizer, Bernd Seiser, Kay Helfricht, and Martin Stocker-Waldhuber
The Cryosphere, 15, 4637–4654, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4637-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-4637-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Eastern Alpine glaciers have been receding since the Little Ice Age maximum, but until now the majority of glacier margins could be delineated unambiguously. Today the outlines of totally debris-covered glacier ice are fuzzy and raise the discussion if these features are still glaciers. We investigated the fate of glacier remnants with high-resolution elevation models, analyzing also thickness changes in buried ice. In the past 13 years, the 46 glaciers of Silvretta lost one-third of their area.
Andreas Kääb, Mylène Jacquemart, Adrien Gilbert, Silvan Leinss, Luc Girod, Christian Huggel, Daniel Falaschi, Felipe Ugalde, Dmitry Petrakov, Sergey Chernomorets, Mikhail Dokukin, Frank Paul, Simon Gascoin, Etienne Berthier, and Jeffrey S. Kargel
The Cryosphere, 15, 1751–1785, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1751-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1751-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Hardly recognized so far, giant catastrophic detachments of glaciers are a rare but great potential for loss of lives and massive damage in mountain regions. Several of the events compiled in our study involve volumes (up to 100 million m3 and more), avalanche speeds (up to 300 km/h), and reaches (tens of kilometres) that are hard to imagine. We show that current climate change is able to enhance associated hazards. For the first time, we elaborate a set of factors that could cause these events.
Christian Vincent, Diego Cusicanqui, Bruno Jourdain, Olivier Laarman, Delphine Six, Adrien Gilbert, Andrea Walpersdorf, Antoine Rabatel, Luc Piard, Florent Gimbert, Olivier Gagliardini, Vincent Peyaud, Laurent Arnaud, Emmanuel Thibert, Fanny Brun, and Ugo Nanni
The Cryosphere, 15, 1259–1276, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1259-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1259-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
In situ glacier point mass balance data are crucial to assess climate change in different regions of the world. Unfortunately, these data are rare because huge efforts are required to conduct in situ measurements on glaciers. Here, we propose a new approach from remote sensing observations. The method has been tested on the Argentière and Mer de Glace glaciers (France). It should be possible to apply this method to high-spatial-resolution satellite images and on numerous glaciers in the world.
Franz Goerlich, Tobias Bolch, and Frank Paul
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 3161–3176, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3161-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3161-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This work indicates all glaciers in the Pamir that surged between 1988 and 2018 as revealed by different remote sensing data, mainly Landsat imagery. We found ~ 200 surging glaciers for the entire mountain range and detected the minimum and maximum extents of most of them. The smallest surging glacier is ~ 0.3 km2. This inventory is important for further research on the surging behaviour of glaciers and has to be considered when processing glacier changes (mass, area) of the region.
Lea Hartl, Lucia Felbauer, Gabriele Schwaizer, and Andrea Fischer
The Cryosphere, 14, 4063–4081, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4063-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4063-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
When glaciers become snow-free in summer, darker glacier ice is exposed. The ice surface is darker than snow and absorbs more radiation, which increases ice melt. We measured how much radiation is reflected at different wavelengths in the ablation zone of Jamtalferner, Austria. Due to impurities and water on the ice surface there are large variations in reflectance. Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 surface reflectance products do not capture the full range of reflectance found on the glacier.
Jordi Bolibar, Antoine Rabatel, Isabelle Gouttevin, and Clovis Galiez
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 1973–1983, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-1973-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-1973-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
We present a dataset of annual glacier mass changes for all the 661 glaciers in the French Alps for the 1967–2015 period, reconstructed using deep learning (i.e. artificial intelligence). We estimate an average annual mass loss of –0.69 ± 0.21 m w.e., the highest being in the Chablais, Ubaye and Champsaur massifs and the lowest in the Mont Blanc, Oisans and Haute Tarentaise ranges. This dataset can be of interest to hydrology and ecology studies on glacierized catchments in the French Alps.
M. Di Rita, D. Fugazza, V. Belloni, G. Diolaiuti, M. Scaioni, and M. Crespi
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLIII-B2-2020, 1041–1048, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIII-B2-2020-1041-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIII-B2-2020-1041-2020, 2020
Michael Zemp, Matthias Huss, Nicolas Eckert, Emmanuel Thibert, Frank Paul, Samuel U. Nussbaumer, and Isabelle Gärtner-Roer
The Cryosphere, 14, 1043–1050, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1043-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1043-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Comprehensive assessments of global glacier mass changes have been published at multi-annual intervals, typically in IPCC reports. For the years in between, we present an approach to infer timely but preliminary estimates of global-scale glacier mass changes from glaciological observations. These ad hoc estimates for 2017/18 indicate that annual glacier contributions to sea-level rise exceeded 1 mm sea-level equivalent, which corresponds to more than a quarter of the currently observed rise.
Giovanni Baccolo, Edyta Łokas, Paweł Gaca, Dario Massabò, Roberto Ambrosini, Roberto S. Azzoni, Caroline Clason, Biagio Di Mauro, Andrea Franzetti, Massimiliano Nastasi, Michele Prata, Paolo Prati, Ezio Previtali, Barbara Delmonte, and Valter Maggi
The Cryosphere, 14, 657–672, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-657-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-657-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Cryoconite is the sediment found on the surface of glaciers. The paper presents cryoconite as an environmental matrix able to accumulate natural and artificial radioactivity with unprecedented efficiency. Only samples from sites where nuclear accidents and explosions occurred present a stronger radioactive contamination. The peculiarities of glacial environments are responsible for this extreme feature, making cryoconite a useful tool tool for the monitoring of environmental radioactivity.
Jordi Bolibar, Antoine Rabatel, Isabelle Gouttevin, Clovis Galiez, Thomas Condom, and Eric Sauquet
The Cryosphere, 14, 565–584, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-565-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-565-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
We introduce a novel approach for simulating glacier mass balances using a deep artificial neural network (i.e. deep learning) from climate and topographical data. This has been added as a component of a new open-source parameterized glacier evolution model. Deep learning is found to outperform linear machine learning methods, mainly due to its nonlinearity. Potential applications range from regional mass balance reconstructions from observations to simulations for past and future climates.
V. Yordanov, D. Fugazza, R. S. Azzoni, M. Cernuschi, M. Scaioni, and G. A. Diolaiuti
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLII-2-W13, 1803–1810, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-2-W13-1803-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-2-W13-1803-2019, 2019
Daniel Falaschi, Andreas Kääb, Frank Paul, Takeo Tadono, Juan Antonio Rivera, and Luis Eduardo Lenzano
The Cryosphere, 13, 997–1004, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-997-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-997-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
In March 2007, the Leñas Glacier in the Central Andes of Argentina collapsed and released an ice avalanche that travelled a distance of 2 km. We analysed aerial photos, satellite images and field evidence to investigate the evolution of the glacier from the 1950s through the present day. A clear potential trigger of the collapse could not be identified from available meteorological and seismic data, nor could a significant change in glacier geometry leading to glacier instability be detected.
Nico Mölg, Tobias Bolch, Philipp Rastner, Tazio Strozzi, and Frank Paul
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 1807–1827, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1807-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1807-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Knowledge about the size and location of glaciers is essential to understand impacts of climatic changes on the natural environment. Therefore, we have produced an inventory of all glaciers in some of the largest glacierized mountain regions worldwide. Many large glaciers are covered by a rock (debris) layer, which also changes their reaction to climatic changes. Thus, we have also mapped this debris layer for all glaciers. We have mapped almost 28000 glaciers covering ~35000 km2.
Thomas Condom, Marie Dumont, Lise Mourre, Jean Emmanuel Sicart, Antoine Rabatel, Alessandra Viani, and Alvaro Soruco
Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst., 7, 169–178, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-7-169-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-7-169-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
This study presents a new instrument called a low-cost albedometer (LCA) composed of two illuminance sensors. The ratio between reflected vs. incident illuminances is called the albedo index and can be compared with actual albedo values. We demonstrate that our system performs well and thus provides relevant opportunities to document spatiotemporal changes in the surface albedo from direct observations at the scale of an entire catchment at a low cost.
M. Scaioni, J. Crippa, M. Corti, L. Barazzetti, D. Fugazza, R. Azzoni, M. Cernuschi, and G. A. Diolaiuti
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLII-2, 1029–1036, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-2-1029-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-2-1029-2018, 2018
Marion Réveillet, Delphine Six, Christian Vincent, Antoine Rabatel, Marie Dumont, Matthieu Lafaysse, Samuel Morin, Vincent Vionnet, and Maxime Litt
The Cryosphere, 12, 1367–1386, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1367-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1367-2018, 2018
Antonella Senese, Maurizio Maugeri, Eraldo Meraldi, Gian Pietro Verza, Roberto Sergio Azzoni, Chiara Compostella, and Guglielmina Diolaiuti
The Cryosphere, 12, 1293–1306, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1293-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1293-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We present and compare 11 years of snow data measured by an automatic weather station and corroborated by data from field campaigns on the Forni Glacier in Italy. The methodology we present is interesting for remote locations such as glaciers or high alpine regions, as it makes it possible to estimate the total snow water equivalent (SWE) using a relatively inexpensive, low-power, low-maintenance, and reliable instrument such as the sonic ranger.
Davide Fugazza, Marco Scaioni, Manuel Corti, Carlo D'Agata, Roberto Sergio Azzoni, Massimo Cernuschi, Claudio Smiraglia, and Guglielmina Adele Diolaiuti
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 1055–1071, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-1055-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-1055-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
This paper describes the surveys we performed in 2014 and 2016 by means of UAVs and terrestrial photogrammetry to monitor the Forni Glacier, one of the largest glaciers in the Italian Alps. We investigated the hazards related to the glacier collapse, which have been increasing recently due to the high ice melting rate. Our approach is feasible and low cost and we will repeatedly monitor the glacier to provide rapid hazard detection services to help the tourism sector.
M. Scaioni, L. Barazzetti, M. Corti, J. Crippa, R. S. Azzoni, D. Fugazza, M. Cernuschi, and G. A. Diolaiuti
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLII-3-W4, 445–452, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-3-W4-445-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-3-W4-445-2018, 2018
Martin Beniston, Daniel Farinotti, Markus Stoffel, Liss M. Andreassen, Erika Coppola, Nicolas Eckert, Adriano Fantini, Florie Giacona, Christian Hauck, Matthias Huss, Hendrik Huwald, Michael Lehning, Juan-Ignacio López-Moreno, Jan Magnusson, Christoph Marty, Enrique Morán-Tejéda, Samuel Morin, Mohamed Naaim, Antonello Provenzale, Antoine Rabatel, Delphine Six, Johann Stötter, Ulrich Strasser, Silvia Terzago, and Christian Vincent
The Cryosphere, 12, 759–794, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-759-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-759-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
This paper makes a rather exhaustive overview of current knowledge of past, current, and future aspects of cryospheric issues in continental Europe and makes a number of reflections of areas of uncertainty requiring more attention in both scientific and policy terms. The review paper is completed by a bibliography containing 350 recent references that will certainly be of value to scholars engaged in the fields of glacier, snow, and permafrost research.
Lucas Davaze, Antoine Rabatel, Yves Arnaud, Pascal Sirguey, Delphine Six, Anne Letreguilly, and Marie Dumont
The Cryosphere, 12, 271–286, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-271-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-271-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
About 150 of the 250 000 inventoried glaciers are currently monitored with surface mass balance (SMB) measurements. To increase this number, we propose a method to retrieve annual and summer SMB from optical satellite imagery, with an application over 30 glaciers in the French Alps. Computing the glacier-wide averaged albedo allows us to reconstruct annual and summer SMB of most of the studied glaciers, highlighting the potential of this method to retrieve SMB of unmonitored glaciers.
Jesús Revuelto, Grégoire Lecourt, Matthieu Lafaysse, Isabella Zin, Luc Charrois, Vincent Vionnet, Marie Dumont, Antoine Rabatel, Delphine Six, Thomas Condom, Samuel Morin, Alessandra Viani, and Pascal Sirguey
The Cryosphere Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2017-184, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2017-184, 2017
Revised manuscript not accepted
Short summary
Short summary
We evaluated distributed and semi-distributed modeling approaches to simulating the spatial and temporal evolution of snow and ice over an extended mountain catchment, using the Crocus snowpack model. The distributed approach simulated the snowpack dynamics on a 250-m grid, enabling inclusion of terrain shadowing effects. The semi-distributed approach simulated the snowpack dynamics for discrete topographic classes characterized by elevation range, aspect, and slope.
M. Scaioni, M. Corti, G. Diolaiuti, D. Fugazza, and M. Cernuschi
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLII-2-W7, 1547–1554, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-2-W7-1547-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-2-W7-1547-2017, 2017
Christopher J. Merchant, Frank Paul, Thomas Popp, Michael Ablain, Sophie Bontemps, Pierre Defourny, Rainer Hollmann, Thomas Lavergne, Alexandra Laeng, Gerrit de Leeuw, Jonathan Mittaz, Caroline Poulsen, Adam C. Povey, Max Reuter, Shubha Sathyendranath, Stein Sandven, Viktoria F. Sofieva, and Wolfgang Wagner
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 511–527, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-511-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-511-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
Climate data records (CDRs) contain data describing Earth's climate and should address uncertainty in the data to communicate what is known about climate variability or change and what range of doubt exists. This paper discusses good practice for including uncertainty information in CDRs for the essential climate variables (ECVs) derived from satellite data. Recommendations emerge from the shared experience of diverse ECV projects within the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative.
Daniel Farinotti, Douglas J. Brinkerhoff, Garry K. C. Clarke, Johannes J. Fürst, Holger Frey, Prateek Gantayat, Fabien Gillet-Chaulet, Claire Girard, Matthias Huss, Paul W. Leclercq, Andreas Linsbauer, Horst Machguth, Carlos Martin, Fabien Maussion, Mathieu Morlighem, Cyrille Mosbeux, Ankur Pandit, Andrea Portmann, Antoine Rabatel, RAAJ Ramsankaran, Thomas J. Reerink, Olivier Sanchez, Peter A. Stentoft, Sangita Singh Kumari, Ward J. J. van Pelt, Brian Anderson, Toby Benham, Daniel Binder, Julian A. Dowdeswell, Andrea Fischer, Kay Helfricht, Stanislav Kutuzov, Ivan Lavrentiev, Robert McNabb, G. Hilmar Gudmundsson, Huilin Li, and Liss M. Andreassen
The Cryosphere, 11, 949–970, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-949-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-949-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
ITMIX – the Ice Thickness Models Intercomparison eXperiment – was the first coordinated performance assessment for models inferring glacier ice thickness from surface characteristics. Considering 17 different models and 21 different test cases, we show that although solutions of individual models can differ considerably, an ensemble average can yield uncertainties in the order of 10 ± 24 % the mean ice thickness. Ways forward for improving such estimates are sketched.
Jacqueline Huber, Alison J. Cook, Frank Paul, and Michael Zemp
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 115–131, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-115-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-115-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
A glacier inventory of the AP (63°–70° S), consisting of glacier outlines accompanied by glacier-specific parameters (i.e., elevation distribution, slope, aspect, thickness and volume), was achieved by digitally combining already-existing data sets. This resulted in 1589 glaciers, covering an area of 95 273 km2. These freely available data provide new insights into AP glaciers, their behavior in response to a changing climate and their corresponding contribution to sea level rise.
L. Maisincho, V. Favier, P. Wagnon, V. Jomelli, R. Basantes Serrano, B. Francou, M. Villacis, A. Rabatel, M. Ménégoz, L. Mourre, and B. Cáceres
The Cryosphere Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2016-105, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2016-105, 2016
Revised manuscript not accepted
Short summary
Short summary
Studies performed in the outer tropics suggested that Positive Degree-Day (PDD) model should be used with caution in tropical areas because temperature is not directly linked to the main local melting processes. Using an enhanced PDD model in the inner tropics during nine years allowed an accurate modelling of the glacier-wide mass balances and ablation on the Antizana glacier. This proves the high sensitivity of glaciers to temperature changes in Ecuador.
F. Paul
The Cryosphere, 9, 2201–2214, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-2201-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-2201-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
This study uses animations of freely available Landsat images (acquired over 25 years) to reveal glacier flow and surge dynamics in the central Karakoram. The animations provide a holistic view on the timing and variability of glacier dynamics that is hard to obtain by other more quantitative methods. Among others, the study reveals that most surging glaciers are comparably small, steep and debris-free, with a wide range of advance rates and durations, overlapping with non-surge-type glaciers.
L. Carturan, R. Filippi, R. Seppi, P. Gabrielli, C. Notarnicola, L. Bertoldi, F. Paul, P. Rastner, F. Cazorzi, R. Dinale, and G. Dalla Fontana
The Cryosphere, 7, 1339–1359, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-1339-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-1339-2013, 2013
A. Rabatel, B. Francou, A. Soruco, J. Gomez, B. Cáceres, J. L. Ceballos, R. Basantes, M. Vuille, J.-E. Sicart, C. Huggel, M. Scheel, Y. Lejeune, Y. Arnaud, M. Collet, T. Condom, G. Consoli, V. Favier, V. Jomelli, R. Galarraga, P. Ginot, L. Maisincho, J. Mendoza, M. Ménégoz, E. Ramirez, P. Ribstein, W. Suarez, M. Villacis, and P. Wagnon
The Cryosphere, 7, 81–102, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-81-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-81-2013, 2013
P. Rastner, T. Bolch, N. Mölg, H. Machguth, R. Le Bris, and F. Paul
The Cryosphere, 6, 1483–1495, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-1483-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-1483-2012, 2012
Related subject area
Glaciology
Ice thickness and bed topography of Jostedalsbreen ice cap, Norway
PRODEM: an annual series of summer DEMs (2019 through 2022) of the marginal areas of the Greenland Ice Sheet
Climate and ablation observations from automatic ablation and weather stations at A. P. Olsen Ice Cap transect, northeast Greenland, for May 2008 through May 2022
Glaciological and meteorological monitoring at Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites Mullwitzkees and Venedigerkees, Austria, 2006–2022
A newly digitized ice-penetrating radar data set acquired over the Greenland ice sheet in 1971–1979
Multitemporal characterization of a proglacial system: a multidisciplinary approach
Spatial and temporal stable water isotope data from the upper snowpack at the EastGRIP camp site, NE Greenland, sampled in summer 2018
High temporal resolution records of the velocity of Hansbreen, a tidewater glacier in Svalbard
A high-resolution calving front data product for marine-terminating glaciers in Svalbard
Calving front positions for 19 key glaciers of the Antarctic Peninsula: a sub-seasonal record from 2013 to 2023 based on a deep learning application to Landsat multispectral imagery
Spatial and temporal variability of environmental proxies from the top 120 m of two ice cores in Dronning Maud Land (East Antarctica)
Inventory of glaciers and perennial snowfields of the conterminous USA
A comprehensive and version-controlled database of glacial lake outburst floods in High Mountain Asia
Unlocking archival maps of the Hornsund fjord area for monitoring glaciers of the Sørkapp Land peninsula, Svalbard
Antarctic Ice Sheet paleo-constraint database
Ice-core data used for the construction of the Greenland Ice-Core Chronology 2005 and 2021 (GICC05 and GICC21)
Antarctic Bedmap data: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) sharing of 60 years of ice bed, surface, and thickness data
A new inventory of High Mountain Asia surging glaciers derived from multiple elevation datasets since the 1970s
Ice core chemistry database: an Antarctic compilation of sodium and sulfate records spanning the past 2000 years
Mass balance of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets from 1992 to 2020
Interdecadal glacier inventories in the Karakoram since the 1990s
Landsat- and Sentinel-derived glacial lake dataset in the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor from 1990 to 2020
Processing methodology for the ITS_LIVE Sentinel-1 ice velocity products
Calving fronts and where to find them: a benchmark dataset and methodology for automatic glacier calving front extraction from synthetic aperture radar imagery
Multitemporal glacier inventory revealing four decades of glacier changes in the Ladakh region
A new global dataset of mountain glacier centerlines and lengths
Elevation change of the Antarctic Ice Sheet: 1985 to 2020
2000 years of annual ice core data from Law Dome, East Antarctica
A 41-year (1979–2019) passive-microwave-derived lake ice phenology data record of the Northern Hemisphere
Rescue and homogenization of 140 years of glacier mass balance data in Switzerland
A decade of glaciological and meteorological observations in the Arctic (Werenskioldbreen, Svalbard)
A comprehensive dataset of microbial abundance, dissolved organic carbon, and nitrogen in Tibetan Plateau glaciers
The Greenland Firn Compaction Verification and Reconnaissance (FirnCover) dataset, 2013–2019
Black carbon and organic carbon dataset over the Third Pole
A high-resolution Antarctic grounding zone product from ICESat-2 laser altimetry
An inventory of supraglacial lakes and channels across the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Greenland ice sheet mass balance from 1840 through next week
Global time series and temporal mosaics of glacier surface velocities derived from Sentinel-1 data
GIS dataset: geomorphological record of terrestrial-terminating ice streams, southern sector of the Baltic Ice Stream Complex, last Scandinavian Ice Sheet, Poland
A 15-year circum-Antarctic iceberg calving dataset derived from continuous satellite observations
Active rock glaciers of the contiguous United States: geographic information system inventory and spatial distribution patterns
Mass balances of Yala and Rikha Samba glaciers, Nepal, from 2000 to 2017
Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE) automatic weather station data
Greenland ice velocity maps from the PROMICE project
The AntSMB dataset: a comprehensive compilation of surface mass balance field observations over the Antarctic Ice Sheet
Glacier changes in the Chhombo Chhu Watershed of the Tista basin between 1975 and 2018, the Sikkim Himalaya, India
Hydrometeorological, glaciological and geospatial research data from the Peyto Glacier Research Basin in the Canadian Rockies
Annual 30 m dataset for glacial lakes in High Mountain Asia from 2008 to 2017
More dynamic than expected: an updated survey of surging glaciers in the Pamir
Worldwide version-controlled database of glacier thickness observations
Mette K. Gillespie, Liss M. Andreassen, Matthias Huss, Simon de Villiers, Kamilla H. Sjursen, Jostein Aasen, Jostein Bakke, Jan M. Cederstrøm, Hallgeir Elvehøy, Bjarne Kjøllmoen, Even Loe, Marte Meland, Kjetil Melvold, Sigurd D. Nerhus, Torgeir O. Røthe, Eivind W. N. Støren, Kåre Øst, and Jacob C. Yde
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 5799–5825, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5799-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5799-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We present an extensive ice thickness dataset from Jostedalsbreen ice cap that will serve as a baseline for future studies of regional climate-induced change. Results show that Jostedalsbreen currently (~2020) has a maximum ice thickness of ~630 m, a mean ice thickness of 154 ± 22 m and an ice volume of 70.6 ±10.2 km3. Ice of less than 50 m thickness covers two narrow regions of Jostedalsbreen, and the ice cap is likely to separate into three parts in a warming climate.
Mai Winstrup, Heidi Ranndal, Signe Hillerup Larsen, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Kenneth D. Mankoff, Robert S. Fausto, and Louise Sandberg Sørensen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 5405–5428, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5405-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5405-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Surface topography across the marginal zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet is constantly evolving. Here we present an annual series (2019–2022) of summer digital elevation models (PRODEMs) for the Greenland Ice Sheet margin, covering all outlet glaciers from the ice sheet. The PRODEMs are based on fusion of CryoSat-2 radar altimetry and ICESat-2 laser altimetry. With their high spatial and temporal resolution, the PRODEMs will enable detailed studies of the changes in marginal ice sheet elevations.
Signe Hillerup Larsen, Daniel Binder, Anja Rutishauser, Bernhard Hynek, Robert Schjøtt Fausto, and Michele Citterio
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4103–4118, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4103-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4103-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring programme has been running since 1995. In 2008, the Glaciological monitoring sub-program GlacioBasis was initiated at the Zackenberg site in northeast Greenland, with a transect of three weather stations on the A. P. Olsen Ice Cap. In 2022, the weather stations were replaced with a more standardized set up. Here, we provide the reprocessed and quality-checked data from 2008 to 2022, i.e., the first 15 years of continued monitoring.
Lea Hartl, Bernd Seiser, Martin Stocker-Waldhuber, Anna Baldo, Marcela Violeta Lauria, and Andrea Fischer
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4077–4101, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4077-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4077-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Glaciers in the Alps are receding at unprecedented rates. To understand how this affects the hydrology and ecosystems of the affected regions, it is important to measure glacier mass balance and ensure that records of field surveys are kept in standardized formats and well-documented. We describe glaciological measurements of ice ablation and snow accumulation gathered at Mullwitzkees and Venedigerkees, two glaciers in the Austrian Alps, since 2007 and 2012, respectively.
Nanna B. Karlsson, Dustin M. Schroeder, Louise Sandberg Sørensen, Winnie Chu, Jørgen Dall, Natalia H. Andersen, Reese Dobson, Emma J. Mackie, Simon J. Köhn, Jillian E. Steinmetz, Angelo S. Tarzona, Thomas O. Teisberg, and Niels Skou
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3333–3344, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3333-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3333-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
In the 1970s, more than 177 000 km of observations were acquired from airborne radar over the Greenland ice sheet. The radar data contain information on not only the thickness of the ice, but also the properties of the ice itself. This information was recorded on film rolls and subsequently stored. In this study, we document the digitization of these film rolls that shed new and unprecedented detailed light on the Greenland ice sheet 50 years ago.
Elisabetta Corte, Andrea Ajmar, Carlo Camporeale, Alberto Cina, Velio Coviello, Fabio Giulio Tonolo, Alberto Godio, Myrta Maria Macelloni, Stefania Tamea, and Andrea Vergnano
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3283–3306, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3283-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3283-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The study presents a set of multitemporal geospatial surveys and the continuous monitoring of water flows in a large proglacial area (4 km2) of the northwestern Alps. Activities were developed using a multidisciplinary approach and merge geomatic, hydraulic, and geophysical methods. The goal is to allow researchers to characterize, monitor, and model a number of physical processes and interconnected phenomena, with a broader perspective and deeper understanding than a single-discipline approach.
Alexandra M. Zuhr, Sonja Wahl, Hans Christian Steen-Larsen, Maria Hörhold, Hanno Meyer, Vasileios Gkinis, and Thomas Laepple
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1861–1874, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1861-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1861-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We present stable water isotope data from the accumulation zone of the Greenland ice sheet. A spatial sampling scheme covering 39 m and three depth layers was carried out between 14 May and 3 August 2018. The data suggest spatial and temporal variability related to meteorological conditions, such as wind-driven snow redistribution and vapour–snow exchange processes. The data can be used to study the formation of the stable water isotopes signal, which is seen as a climate proxy.
Małgorzata Błaszczyk, Bartłomiej Luks, Michał Pętlicki, Dariusz Puczko, Dariusz Ignatiuk, Michał Laska, Jacek Jania, and Piotr Głowacki
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1847–1860, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1847-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1847-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Understanding the glacier response to accelerated climate warming in the Arctic requires data obtained in the field. Here, we present a dataset of velocity measurements of Hansbreen, a tidewater glacier in Svalbard. The glacier's velocity was measured with GPS at 16 stakes mounted on the glacier's surface. The measurements were conducted from about 1 week to about 1 month. The dataset offers unique material for validating numerical models of glacier dynamics and satellite-derived products.
Tian Li, Konrad Heidler, Lichao Mou, Ádám Ignéczi, Xiao Xiang Zhu, and Jonathan L. Bamber
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 919–939, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-919-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-919-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Our study uses deep learning to produce a new high-resolution calving front dataset for 149 marine-terminating glaciers in Svalbard from 1985 to 2023, containing 124 919 terminus traces. This dataset offers insights into understanding calving mechanisms and can help improve glacier frontal ablation estimates as a component of the integrated mass balance assessment.
Erik Loebel, Celia A. Baumhoer, Andreas Dietz, Mirko Scheinert, and Martin Horwath
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-535, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-535, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Glacier calving front positions are important for understanding glacier dynamics and constrain ice modelling. We apply a deep learning framework on multispectral Landsat imagery to create a calving front record for 19 key outlet glaciers of the Antarctic Peninsula. The resulting data product includes 2064 calving front locations from 2013 to 2023 and achieves sub-seasonal temporal resolution.
Sarah Wauthy, Jean-Louis Tison, Mana Inoue, Saïda El Amri, Sainan Sun, François Fripiat, Philippe Claeys, and Frank Pattyn
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 35–58, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-35-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-35-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The datasets presented are the density, water isotopes, ions, and conductivity measurements, as well as age models and surface mass balance (SMB) from the top 120 m of two ice cores drilled on adjacent ice rises in Dronning Maud Land, dating from the late 18th century. They offer many development possibilities for the interpretation of paleo-profiles and for addressing the mechanisms behind the spatial and temporal variability of SMB and proxies observed at the regional scale in East Antarctica.
Andrew G. Fountain, Bryce Glenn, and Christopher Mcneil
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 4077–4104, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4077-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4077-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Glaciers are rapidly shrinking globally. To identify past change and provide a baseline for future change, we inventoried the extent of glaciers and perennial snowfields across the western USA excluding Alaska. Using mostly aerial imagery, we digitized the outlines of all glaciers and perennial snowfields equal to or larger than 0.01 km2 using a geographical information system. We identified 1331 (366.52 km2) glaciers and 1176 (31.00 km2) snowfields.
Finu Shrestha, Jakob F. Steiner, Reeju Shrestha, Yathartha Dhungel, Sharad P. Joshi, Sam Inglis, Arshad Ashraf, Sher Wali, Khwaja M. Walizada, and Taigang Zhang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3941–3961, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3941-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3941-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
A new inventory of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) in High Mountain Asia found 697 events, causing 906 deaths, 3 times more than previously reported. This study provides insights into the contributing factors behind GLOFs on a regional scale and highlights the need for interdisciplinary approaches, including scientific communities and local knowledge, to understand GLOF risks in Asia. This study allows integration with other datasets, enabling future local and regional risk assessments.
Justyna Dudek and Michał Pętlicki
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3869–3889, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3869-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3869-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
In our research, we evaluate the potential of archival maps of Hornsund fjord area, southern Spitsbergen, published by the Polish Academy of Sciences for studying glacier changes. Our analysis concerning glaciers in the north-western part of the Sørkapp Land peninsula revealed that, in the period 1961–2010, a maximum lowering of their surface was about 100 m for the largest land-terminating glaciers and over 120 m for glaciers terminating in the ocean (above the line marking their 1984 extents).
Benoit S. Lecavalier, Lev Tarasov, Greg Balco, Perry Spector, Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, Christo Buizert, Catherine Ritz, Marion Leduc-Leballeur, Robert Mulvaney, Pippa L. Whitehouse, Michael J. Bentley, and Jonathan Bamber
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3573–3596, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3573-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3573-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The Antarctic Ice Sheet Evolution constraint database version 2 (AntICE2) consists of a large variety of observations that constrain the evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet over the last glacial cycle. This includes observations of past ice sheet extent, past ice thickness, past relative sea level, borehole temperature profiles, and present-day bedrock displacement rates. The database is intended to improve our understanding of past Antarctic changes and for ice sheet model calibrations.
Sune Olander Rasmussen, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Hubertus Fischer, Katrin Fuhrer, Steffen Bo Hansen, Margareta Hansson, Christine S. Hvidberg, Ulf Jonsell, Sepp Kipfstuhl, Urs Ruth, Jakob Schwander, Marie-Louise Siggaard-Andersen, Giulia Sinnl, Jørgen Peder Steffensen, Anders M. Svensson, and Bo M. Vinther
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3351–3364, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3351-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3351-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Timescales are essential for interpreting palaeoclimate data. The data series presented here were used for annual-layer identification when constructing the timescales named the Greenland Ice-Core Chronology 2005 (GICC05) and the revised version GICC21. Hopefully, these high-resolution data sets will be useful also for other purposes.
Alice C. Frémand, Peter Fretwell, Julien A. Bodart, Hamish D. Pritchard, Alan Aitken, Jonathan L. Bamber, Robin Bell, Cesidio Bianchi, Robert G. Bingham, Donald D. Blankenship, Gino Casassa, Ginny Catania, Knut Christianson, Howard Conway, Hugh F. J. Corr, Xiangbin Cui, Detlef Damaske, Volkmar Damm, Reinhard Drews, Graeme Eagles, Olaf Eisen, Hannes Eisermann, Fausto Ferraccioli, Elena Field, René Forsberg, Steven Franke, Shuji Fujita, Yonggyu Gim, Vikram Goel, Siva Prasad Gogineni, Jamin Greenbaum, Benjamin Hills, Richard C. A. Hindmarsh, Andrew O. Hoffman, Per Holmlund, Nicholas Holschuh, John W. Holt, Annika N. Horlings, Angelika Humbert, Robert W. Jacobel, Daniela Jansen, Adrian Jenkins, Wilfried Jokat, Tom Jordan, Edward King, Jack Kohler, William Krabill, Mette Kusk Gillespie, Kirsty Langley, Joohan Lee, German Leitchenkov, Carlton Leuschen, Bruce Luyendyk, Joseph MacGregor, Emma MacKie, Kenichi Matsuoka, Mathieu Morlighem, Jérémie Mouginot, Frank O. Nitsche, Yoshifumi Nogi, Ole A. Nost, John Paden, Frank Pattyn, Sergey V. Popov, Eric Rignot, David M. Rippin, Andrés Rivera, Jason Roberts, Neil Ross, Anotonia Ruppel, Dustin M. Schroeder, Martin J. Siegert, Andrew M. Smith, Daniel Steinhage, Michael Studinger, Bo Sun, Ignazio Tabacco, Kirsty Tinto, Stefano Urbini, David Vaughan, Brian C. Welch, Douglas S. Wilson, Duncan A. Young, and Achille Zirizzotti
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 2695–2710, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2695-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2695-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents the release of over 60 years of ice thickness, bed elevation, and surface elevation data acquired over Antarctica by the international community. These data are a crucial component of the Antarctic Bedmap initiative which aims to produce a new map and datasets of Antarctic ice thickness and bed topography for the international glaciology and geophysical community.
Lei Guo, Jia Li, Amaury Dehecq, Zhiwei Li, Xin Li, and Jianjun Zhu
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 2841–2861, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2841-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2841-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We established a new inventory of surging glaciers across High Mountain Asia based on glacier elevation changes and morphological changes during 1970s–2020. A total of 890 surging and 336 probably or possibly surging glaciers were identified. Compared to the most recent inventory, this one incorporates 253 previously unidentified surging glaciers. Our results demonstrate a more widespread surge behavior in HMA and find that surging glaciers are prone to have steeper slopes than non-surging ones.
Elizabeth R. Thomas, Diana O. Vladimirova, Dieter R. Tetzner, B. Daniel Emanuelsson, Nathan Chellman, Daniel A. Dixon, Hugues Goosse, Mackenzie M. Grieman, Amy C. F. King, Michael Sigl, Danielle G. Udy, Tessa R. Vance, Dominic A. Winski, V. Holly L. Winton, Nancy A. N. Bertler, Akira Hori, Chavarukonam M. Laluraj, Joseph R. McConnell, Yuko Motizuki, Kazuya Takahashi, Hideaki Motoyama, Yoichi Nakai, Franciéle Schwanck, Jefferson Cardia Simões, Filipe Gaudie Ley Lindau, Mirko Severi, Rita Traversi, Sarah Wauthy, Cunde Xiao, Jiao Yang, Ellen Mosely-Thompson, Tamara V. Khodzher, Ludmila P. Golobokova, and Alexey A. Ekaykin
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 2517–2532, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2517-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2517-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The concentration of sodium and sulfate measured in Antarctic ice cores is related to changes in both sea ice and winds. Here we have compiled a database of sodium and sulfate records from 105 ice core sites in Antarctica. The records span all, or part, of the past 2000 years. The records will improve our understanding of how winds and sea ice have changed in the past and how they have influenced the climate of Antarctica over the past 2000 years.
Inès N. Otosaka, Andrew Shepherd, Erik R. Ivins, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Charles Amory, Michiel R. van den Broeke, Martin Horwath, Ian Joughin, Michalea D. King, Gerhard Krinner, Sophie Nowicki, Anthony J. Payne, Eric Rignot, Ted Scambos, Karen M. Simon, Benjamin E. Smith, Louise S. Sørensen, Isabella Velicogna, Pippa L. Whitehouse, Geruo A, Cécile Agosta, Andreas P. Ahlstrøm, Alejandro Blazquez, William Colgan, Marcus E. Engdahl, Xavier Fettweis, Rene Forsberg, Hubert Gallée, Alex Gardner, Lin Gilbert, Noel Gourmelen, Andreas Groh, Brian C. Gunter, Christopher Harig, Veit Helm, Shfaqat Abbas Khan, Christoph Kittel, Hannes Konrad, Peter L. Langen, Benoit S. Lecavalier, Chia-Chun Liang, Bryant D. Loomis, Malcolm McMillan, Daniele Melini, Sebastian H. Mernild, Ruth Mottram, Jeremie Mouginot, Johan Nilsson, Brice Noël, Mark E. Pattle, William R. Peltier, Nadege Pie, Mònica Roca, Ingo Sasgen, Himanshu V. Save, Ki-Weon Seo, Bernd Scheuchl, Ernst J. O. Schrama, Ludwig Schröder, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Thomas Slater, Giorgio Spada, Tyler C. Sutterley, Bramha Dutt Vishwakarma, Jan Melchior van Wessem, David Wiese, Wouter van der Wal, and Bert Wouters
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1597–1616, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1597-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1597-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
By measuring changes in the volume, gravitational attraction, and ice flow of Greenland and Antarctica from space, we can monitor their mass gain and loss over time. Here, we present a new record of the Earth’s polar ice sheet mass balance produced by aggregating 50 satellite-based estimates of ice sheet mass change. This new assessment shows that the ice sheets have lost (7.5 x 1012) t of ice between 1992 and 2020, contributing 21 mm to sea level rise.
Fuming Xie, Shiyin Liu, Yongpeng Gao, Yu Zhu, Tobias Bolch, Andreas Kääb, Shimei Duan, Wenfei Miao, Jianfang Kang, Yaonan Zhang, Xiran Pan, Caixia Qin, Kunpeng Wu, Miaomiao Qi, Xianhe Zhang, Ying Yi, Fengze Han, Xiaojun Yao, Qiao Liu, Xin Wang, Zongli Jiang, Donghui Shangguan, Yong Zhang, Richard Grünwald, Muhammad Adnan, Jyoti Karki, and Muhammad Saifullah
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 847–867, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-847-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-847-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, first we generated inventories which allowed us to systematically detect glacier change patterns in the Karakoram range. We found that, by the 2020s, there were approximately 10 500 glaciers in the Karakoram mountains covering an area of 22 510.73 km2, of which ~ 10.2 % is covered by debris. During the past 30 years (from 1990 to 2020), the total glacier cover area in Karakoram remained relatively stable, with a slight increase in area of 23.5 km2.
Muchu Lesi, Yong Nie, Dan Hirsh Shugar, Jida Wang, Qian Deng, Huayong Chen, and Jianrong Fan
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 5489–5512, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5489-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5489-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor plays a vital role in foreign trade and faces threats from water shortage and water-related hazards. An up-to-date glacial lake dataset with critical parameters is basic for water resource and flood risk research, which is absent from the corridor. This study created a glacial lake dataset in 2020 from Landsat and Sentinel images from 1990–2000, using a threshold-based mapping method. Our dataset has the potential to be widely applied.
Yang Lei, Alex S. Gardner, and Piyush Agram
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 5111–5137, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5111-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5111-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This work describes NASA MEaSUREs ITS_LIVE project's Version 2 Sentinel-1 image-pair ice velocity product and processing methodology. We show the refined offset tracking algorithm, autoRIFT, calibration for Sentinel-1 geolocation biases and correction of the ionosphere streaking problems. Validation was performed over three typical test sites covering the globe by comparing with other similar global and regional products.
Nora Gourmelon, Thorsten Seehaus, Matthias Braun, Andreas Maier, and Vincent Christlein
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 4287–4313, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4287-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4287-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Ice loss of glaciers shows in retreating calving fronts (i.e., the position where icebergs break off the glacier and drift into the ocean). This paper presents a benchmark dataset for calving front delineation in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The dataset can be used to train and test deep learning techniques, which automate the monitoring of the calving front. Provided example models achieve front delineations with an average distance of 887 m to the correct calving front.
Mohd Soheb, Alagappan Ramanathan, Anshuman Bhardwaj, Millie Coleman, Brice R. Rea, Matteo Spagnolo, Shaktiman Singh, and Lydia Sam
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 4171–4185, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4171-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4171-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This study provides a multi-temporal inventory of glaciers in the Ladakh region. The study records data on 2257 glaciers (>0.5 km2) covering an area of ~7923 ± 106 km2 which is equivalent to ~89 % of the total glacierised area of the Ladakh region. It will benefit both the scientific community and the administration of the Union Territory of Ladakh, in developing efficient mitigation and adaptation strategies by improving the projections of change on timescales relevant to policymakers.
Dahong Zhang, Gang Zhou, Wen Li, Shiqiang Zhang, Xiaojun Yao, and Shimei Wei
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 3889–3913, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3889-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3889-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The length of a glacier is a key determinant of its geometry; glacier centerlines are crucial inputs for many glaciological applications. Based on the European allocation theory, we present a new global dataset that includes the centerlines and lengths of 198 137 mountain glaciers. The accuracy of the glacier centerlines was 89.68 %. The constructed dataset comprises 17 sub-datasets which contain the centerlines and lengths of glacier tributaries.
Johan Nilsson, Alex S. Gardner, and Fernando S. Paolo
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 3573–3598, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3573-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3573-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The longest observational record available to study the mass balance of the Earth’s ice sheets comes from satellite altimeters. This record consists of multiple satellite missions with different measurements and quality, and it must be cross-calibrated and integrated into a consistent record for scientific use. Here, we present a novel approach for generating such a record providing a seamless record of elevation change for the Antarctic Ice Sheet that spans the period 1985 to 2020.
Lenneke M. Jong, Christopher T. Plummer, Jason L. Roberts, Andrew D. Moy, Mark A. J. Curran, Tessa R. Vance, Joel B. Pedro, Chelsea A. Long, Meredith Nation, Paul A. Mayewski, and Tas D. van Ommen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 3313–3328, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3313-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3313-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Ice core records from Law Dome in East Antarctica, collected over the the last 3 decades, provide high-resolution data for studies of the climate of Antarctica, Australia and the Southern and Indo-Pacific oceans. Here, we present a set of annually dated records from Law Dome covering the last 2000 years. This dataset provides an update and extensions both forward and back in time of previously published subsets of the data, bringing them together into a coherent set with improved dating.
Yu Cai, Claude R. Duguay, and Chang-Qing Ke
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 3329–3347, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3329-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3329-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Seasonal ice cover is one of the important attributes of lakes in middle- and high-latitude regions. This study used passive microwave brightness temperature measurements to extract the ice phenology for 56 lakes across the Northern Hemisphere from 1979 to 2019. A threshold algorithm was applied according to the differences in brightness temperature between lake ice and open water. The dataset will provide valuable information about the changing ice cover of lakes over the last 4 decades.
Lea Geibel, Matthias Huss, Claudia Kurzböck, Elias Hodel, Andreas Bauder, and Daniel Farinotti
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 3293–3312, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3293-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3293-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Glacier monitoring in Switzerland started in the 19th century, providing exceptional data series documenting snow accumulation and ice melt. Raw point observations of surface mass balance have, however, never been systematically compiled so far, including complete metadata. Here, we present an extensive dataset with more than 60 000 point observations of surface mass balance covering 60 Swiss glaciers and almost 140 years, promoting a better understanding of the drivers of recent glacier change.
Dariusz Ignatiuk, Małgorzata Błaszczyk, Tomasz Budzik, Mariusz Grabiec, Jacek A. Jania, Marta Kondracka, Michał Laska, Łukasz Małarzewski, and Łukasz Stachnik
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 2487–2500, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2487-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2487-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents details of the glaciological and meteorological dataset (2009–2020) from the Werenskioldbreen (Svalbard). These high-quality and long-term observational data already have been used to assess hydrological models and glaciological studies. The objective of releasing these data is to improve their usage for calibration and validation of the remote sensing products and models, as well as to increase data reuse.
Yongqin Liu, Pengcheng Fang, Bixi Guo, Mukan Ji, Pengfei Liu, Guannan Mao, Baiqing Xu, Shichang Kang, and Junzhi Liu
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 2303–2314, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2303-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2303-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Glaciers are an important pool of microorganisms, organic carbon, and nitrogen. This study constructed the first dataset of microbial abundance and total nitrogen in Tibetan Plateau (TP) glaciers and the first dataset of dissolved organic carbon in ice cores on the TP. These new data could provide valuable information for research on the glacier carbon and nitrogen cycle and help in assessing the potential impacts of glacier retreat due to global warming on downstream ecosystems.
Michael J. MacFerrin, C. Max Stevens, Baptiste Vandecrux, Edwin D. Waddington, and Waleed Abdalati
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 955–971, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-955-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-955-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The vast majority of the Greenland ice sheet's surface is covered by pluriannual snow, also called firn, that accumulates year after year and is compressed into glacial ice. The thickness of the firn layer changes through time and responds to the surface climate. We present continuous measurement of the firn compaction at various depths for eight sites. The dataset will help to evaluate firn models, interpret ice cores, and convert remotely sensed ice sheet surface height change to mass loss.
Shichang Kang, Yulan Zhang, Pengfei Chen, Junming Guo, Qianggong Zhang, Zhiyuan Cong, Susan Kaspari, Lekhendra Tripathee, Tanguang Gao, Hewen Niu, Xinyue Zhong, Xintong Chen, Zhaofu Hu, Xiaofei Li, Yang Li, Bigyan Neupane, Fangping Yan, Dipesh Rupakheti, Chaman Gul, Wei Zhang, Guangming Wu, Ling Yang, Zhaoqing Wang, and Chaoliu Li
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 683–707, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-683-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-683-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The Tibetan Plateau is important to the Earth’s climate. However, systematically observed data here are scarce. To perform more integrated and in-depth investigations of the origins and distributions of atmospheric pollutants and their impacts on cryospheric change, systematic data of black carbon and organic carbon from the atmosphere, glaciers, snow cover, precipitation, and lake sediment cores over the plateau based on the Atmospheric Pollution and Cryospheric Change program are provided.
Tian Li, Geoffrey J. Dawson, Stephen J. Chuter, and Jonathan L. Bamber
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 535–557, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-535-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-535-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Accurate knowledge of the Antarctic grounding zone is important for mass balance calculation, ice sheet stability assessment, and ice sheet model projections. Here we present the first ICESat-2-derived high-resolution grounding zone product of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, including three important boundaries. This new data product will provide more comprehensive insights into ice sheet instability, which is valuable for both the cryosphere and sea level science communities.
Diarmuid Corr, Amber Leeson, Malcolm McMillan, Ce Zhang, and Thomas Barnes
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 209–228, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-209-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-209-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We identify 119 km2 of meltwater area over West Antarctica in January 2017. In combination with Stokes et al., 2019, this forms the first continent-wide assessment helping to quantify the mass balance of Antarctica and its contribution to global sea level rise. We apply thresholds for meltwater classification to satellite images, mapping the extent and manually post-processing to remove false positives. Our study provides a high-fidelity dataset to train and validate machine learning methods.
Kenneth D. Mankoff, Xavier Fettweis, Peter L. Langen, Martin Stendel, Kristian K. Kjeldsen, Nanna B. Karlsson, Brice Noël, Michiel R. van den Broeke, Anne Solgaard, William Colgan, Jason E. Box, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Michalea D. King, Andreas P. Ahlstrøm, Signe Bech Andersen, and Robert S. Fausto
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 5001–5025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5001-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5001-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We estimate the daily mass balance and its components (surface, marine, and basal mass balance) for the Greenland ice sheet. Our time series begins in 1840 and has annual resolution through 1985 and then daily from 1986 through next week. Results are operational (updated daily) and provided for the entire ice sheet or by commonly used regions or sectors. This is the first input–output mass balance estimate to include the basal mass balance.
Peter Friedl, Thorsten Seehaus, and Matthias Braun
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4653–4675, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4653-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4653-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Consistent and continuous data on glacier surface velocity are important inputs to time series analyses, numerical ice dynamic modeling and glacier mass flux computations. We present a new data set of glacier surface velocities derived from Sentinel-1 radar satellite data that covers 12 major glaciated regions outside the polar ice sheets. The data comprise continuously updated scene-pair velocity fields, as well as monthly and annually averaged velocity mosaics at 200 m spatial resolution.
Izabela Szuman, Jakub Z. Kalita, Marek W. Ewertowski, Chris D. Clark, Stephen J. Livingstone, and Leszek Kasprzak
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4635–4651, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4635-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4635-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The Baltic Ice Stream Complex was the most prominent ice stream of the last Scandinavian Ice Sheet, controlling ice sheet drainage and collapse. Our mapping effort, based on a lidar DEM, resulted in a dataset containing 5461 landforms over an area of 65 000 km2, which allows for reconstruction of the last Scandinavian Ice Sheet extent and dynamics from the Middle Weichselian ice sheet advance, 50–30 ka, through the Last Glacial Maximum, 25–21 ka, and Young Baltic advances, 18–15 ka.
Mengzhen Qi, Yan Liu, Jiping Liu, Xiao Cheng, Yijing Lin, Qiyang Feng, Qiang Shen, and Zhitong Yu
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4583–4601, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4583-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4583-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
A total of 1975 annual calving events larger than 1 km2 were detected on the Antarctic ice shelves from August 2005 to August 2020. The average annual calved area was measured as 3549.1 km2, and the average calving rate was measured as 770.3 Gt yr-1. Iceberg calving is most prevalent in West Antarctica, followed by the Antarctic Peninsula and Wilkes Land in East Antarctica. This annual iceberg calving dataset provides consistent and precise calving observations with the longest time coverage.
Gunnar Johnson, Heejun Chang, and Andrew Fountain
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 3979–3994, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3979-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3979-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We present the Portland State University Active Rock Glacier Inventory (n = 10 343) for the contiguous United States, derived from manual classification of remote sensing imagery. This geospatial inventory will allow past rock glacier research findings to be spatially extrapolated, facilitating rock glacier research by identifying field study sites and serving as a valuable training set for the development of automated rock glacier identification methods applicable to other regional studies.
Dorothea Stumm, Sharad Prasad Joshi, Tika Ram Gurung, and Gunjan Silwal
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 3791–3818, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3791-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3791-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Glacier mass change data are valuable as a climate indicator and help to verify simulations of glaciological and hydrological processes. Data from the Himalaya are rare; hence, we established monitoring programmes on two glaciers in the Nepal Himalaya. We measured annual mass changes on Yala and Rikha Samba glaciers from 2011 to 2017 and calculated satellite-based mass changes from 2000 to 2012 for Yala Glacier. Both glaciers are shrinking, following the general trend in the Himalayas.
Robert S. Fausto, Dirk van As, Kenneth D. Mankoff, Baptiste Vandecrux, Michele Citterio, Andreas P. Ahlstrøm, Signe B. Andersen, William Colgan, Nanna B. Karlsson, Kristian K. Kjeldsen, Niels J. Korsgaard, Signe H. Larsen, Søren Nielsen, Allan Ø. Pedersen, Christopher L. Shields, Anne M. Solgaard, and Jason E. Box
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 3819–3845, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3819-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3819-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE) has been measuring climate and ice sheet properties since 2007. Here, we present our data product from weather and ice sheet measurements from a network of automatic weather stations mainly located in the melt area of the ice sheet. Currently the PROMICE automatic weather station network includes 25 instrumented sites in Greenland.
Anne Solgaard, Anders Kusk, John Peter Merryman Boncori, Jørgen Dall, Kenneth D. Mankoff, Andreas P. Ahlstrøm, Signe B. Andersen, Michele Citterio, Nanna B. Karlsson, Kristian K. Kjeldsen, Niels J. Korsgaard, Signe H. Larsen, and Robert S. Fausto
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 3491–3512, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3491-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3491-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The PROMICE Ice Velocity product is a time series of Greenland Ice Sheet ice velocity mosaics spanning September 2016 to present. It is derived from Sentinel-1 SAR data and has a spatial resolution of 500 m. Each mosaic spans 24 d (two Sentinel-1 cycles), and a new one is posted every 12 d (every Sentinel-1A cycle). The spatial comprehensiveness and temporal consistency make the product ideal for monitoring and studying ice-sheet-wide ice discharge and dynamics of glaciers.
Yetang Wang, Minghu Ding, Carleen H. Reijmer, Paul C. J. P. Smeets, Shugui Hou, and Cunde Xiao
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 3057–3074, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3057-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3057-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Accurate observation of surface mass balance (SMB) under climate change is essential for the reliable present and future assessment of Antarctic contribution to global sea level. This study presents a new quality-controlled dataset of Antarctic SMB observations at different temporal resolutions and is the first ice-sheet-scale compilation of multiple types of measurements. The dataset can be widely applied to climate model validation, remote sensing retrievals, and data assimilation.
Arindam Chowdhury, Milap Chand Sharma, Sunil Kumar De, and Manasi Debnath
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 2923–2944, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-2923-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-2923-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This is an integrated watershed-based study of glacier change across the Chhombo Chhu Watershed in the Sikkim Himalaya, 1975–2018. This glacier analysis comprised 74 glaciers with a total area of 44.8 ± 1.5 km2 including 64 debris-free glaciers with an area of 28.4 ± 1.1 km2 (63.4 % of total glacier area) in 2018. Mean glacier area of the watershed stands at 0.61 km2, with dominance of small-sized glaciers. Our mapping revealed that there has been a glacier area recession of 17.9 ± 1.7 km2.
Dhiraj Pradhananga, John W. Pomeroy, Caroline Aubry-Wake, D. Scott Munro, Joseph Shea, Michael N. Demuth, Nammy Hang Kirat, Brian Menounos, and Kriti Mukherjee
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 2875–2894, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-2875-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-2875-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents hydrological, meteorological, glaciological and geospatial data of Peyto Glacier Basin in the Canadian Rockies. They include high-resolution DEMs derived from air photos and lidar surveys and long-term hydrological and glaciological model forcing datasets derived from bias-corrected reanalysis products. These data are crucial for studying climate change and variability in the basin and understanding the hydrological responses of the basin to both glacier and climate change.
Fang Chen, Meimei Zhang, Huadong Guo, Simon Allen, Jeffrey S. Kargel, Umesh K. Haritashya, and C. Scott Watson
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 741–766, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-741-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-741-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We developed a 30 m dataset to characterize the annual coverage of glacial lakes in High Mountain Asia (HMA) from 2008 to 2017. Our results show that proglacial lakes are a main contributor to recent lake evolution in HMA, accounting for 62.87 % (56.67 km2) of the total area increase. Regional geographic variability of debris cover, together with trends in warming and precipitation over the past few decades, largely explains the current distribution of supra- and proglacial lake area.
Franz Goerlich, Tobias Bolch, and Frank Paul
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 3161–3176, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3161-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3161-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This work indicates all glaciers in the Pamir that surged between 1988 and 2018 as revealed by different remote sensing data, mainly Landsat imagery. We found ~ 200 surging glaciers for the entire mountain range and detected the minimum and maximum extents of most of them. The smallest surging glacier is ~ 0.3 km2. This inventory is important for further research on the surging behaviour of glaciers and has to be considered when processing glacier changes (mass, area) of the region.
Ethan Welty, Michael Zemp, Francisco Navarro, Matthias Huss, Johannes J. Fürst, Isabelle Gärtner-Roer, Johannes Landmann, Horst Machguth, Kathrin Naegeli, Liss M. Andreassen, Daniel Farinotti, Huilin Li, and GlaThiDa Contributors
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 3039–3055, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3039-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3039-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Knowing the thickness of glacier ice is critical for predicting the rate of glacier loss and the myriad downstream impacts. To facilitate forecasts of future change, we have added 3 million measurements to our worldwide database of glacier thickness: 14 % of global glacier area is now within 1 km of a thickness measurement (up from 6 %). To make it easier to update and monitor the quality of our database, we have used automated tools to check and track changes to the data over time.
Cited articles
Auer, I., Böhm, R., Jurkovic, A., Lipa, W., Orlik, A., Potzmann, R.,
Schöner, W., Ungersböck, M., Matulla, C., Briffa, K., Jones, P. D.,
Efthymiadis, D., Brunetti, M., Nanni, T., Maugeri, M., Mercalli, L., Mestre,
O., Moisselin, J.-M., Begert, M., Müller-Westermeier, G., Kveton, V.,
Bochnicek, O., Stastny, P., Lapin, M., Szalai, S., Szentimrey, T., Cegnar,
T., Dolinar, M., Gajic-Capka, M., Zaninovic, K., Majstorovic, Z., and
Nieplova, E.: HISTALP – historical instrumental climatological surface time
series of the greater Alpine region 1760–2003, Int. J.
Climatol., 27, 17–46, 2007.
Beniston, M., Diaz, H. F., and Bradley, R. S.: Climatic change at high
elevation sites: A review, Climatic Change, 36, 233–251, 1997.
Böhm, R., Auer, I., Brunetti, M., Maugeri, M., Nanni, T., and
Schöner, W.: Regional temperature variability in the European Alps
1760–1998 from homogenized instrumental time series, Int. J.
Climatol., 21, 1779–1801, 2001.
Carturan, L., Filippi, R., Seppi, R., Gabrielli, P., Notarnicola, C., Bertoldi, L., Paul, F., Rastner, P., Cazorzi, F., Dinale, R., and Dalla Fontana, G.: Area and volume loss of the glaciers in the Ortles-Cevedale group (Eastern Italian Alps): controls and imbalance of the remaining glaciers, The Cryosphere, 7, 1339–1359, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-1339-2013, 2013.
Casty, C., Wanner, H., Luterbacher, J., Esper, J., and Böhm, R.: Temperature and precipitation variability in the European Alps since 1500, Int. J. Climatol., 25, 1855–1880, 2005.
Dozier, J.: Spectral signature of alpine snow cover from Landsat 5 TM,
Remote Sens. Environ., 28, 9–22, 1989.
Evans, I. S. and Cox, N. J.: Global variations of local asymmetry in glacier
altitude: Separation of north-south and east-west components, J.
Glaciol., 51, 469–482, 2005.
Fischer, M., Huss, M., Barboux, C., and Hoelzle, M.: The new Swiss Glacier
Inventory SGI2010: Relevance of using high-resolution source data in areas
dominated by very small glaciers, Arct. Antarct. Alp. Res.,
46, 933–945, 2014.
Fischer, A., Seiser, B., Stocker Waldhuber, M., Mitterer, C., and Abermann, J.: Tracing glacier changes in Austria from the Little Ice Age to the present using a lidar-based high-resolution glacier inventory in Austria, The Cryosphere, 9, 753–766, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-753-2015, 2015.
Frei, C.: Interpolation of temperature in a mountainous region using
nonlinear profiles and non-Euclidean distances, Int. J.
Climatol., 34, 1585–1605, 2014.
Frei, C., Christensen, J. H., Déqué, M., Jacob, D., Jones, R. G., and
Vidale, P. L.: Daily precipitation statistics in regional climate models:
Evaluation and intercomparison for the European Alps, J. Geophys.
Res., 108, 4124, https://doi.org/10.1029/2002JD002287, 2003.
Gardent, M., Rabatel, A., Dedieu, J.-P., and Deline, P.: Multitemporal
glacier inventory of the French Alps from the late 1960s to the late 2000s,
Global Planet. Change, 120, 24–37, 2014.
Gardner, A. S., Moholdt, G., Cogley, J. G., Wouters, B., Arendt, A. A.,
Wahr, J., Berthier, E., Hock, R., Pfeffer, W. T., Kaser, G., Ligtenberg, S.
R. M., Bolch, T., Sharp, M. J., Hagen, J. O., van den Broeke, M. R., and
Paul, F.: A consensus estimate of glacier contributions to sea level rise:
2003 to 2009, Science, 340, 852–857, 2013.
Kääb, A., Winsvold, S. H., Altena, B., Nuth, C., Nagler, T., and
Wuite, J.: Glacier remote sensing using Sentinel-2. Part I: Radiometric and
geometric performance, and application to ice velocity, Remote Sens., 8, 598, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs8070598, 2016.
Kienholz, C., Hock, R., and Arendt, A. A.: A new semi-automatic approach for
dividing glacier complexes into individual glaciers, J. Glaciol.,
59, 925–936, 2013.
Lambrecht, A. and Kuhn, M.: Glacier changes in the Austrian Alps
during the last three decades, derived from the new Austrian glacier
inventory, Ann. Glaciol., 46, 177–184, 2007.
Leigh, J. R., Stokes, C. R., Carr, R. J., Evans, I. S., Andreassen, L. M., and
Evans, D. J. A.: Identifying and mapping very small (<0.5 km2)
mountain glaciers on coarse to high-resolution imagery, J.
Glaciol., 65, 873–888, 2019.
Marzeion, B., Champollion, N., Haeberli, W., Langley, K., Leclercq, P., and
Paul, F.: Observation of glacier mass changes on the global scale and its
contribution to sea level change, Surv. Geophys., 38, 105–130,
2017.
Mölg, N., Bolch, T., Rastner, P., Strozzi, T., and Paul, F.: A consistent glacier inventory for Karakoram and Pamir derived from Landsat data: distribution of debris cover and mapping challenges, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 1807–1827, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1807-2018, 2018.
Mölg, N., Bolch, T., Walter, A., and Vieli, A.: Unravelling the evolution of Zmuttgletscher and its debris cover since the end of the Little Ice Age, The Cryosphere, 13, 1889–1909, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1889-2019, 2019.
Oerlemans, J.: Extracting a climate signal from 169 glacier records,
Science, 308, 675–677, 2005.
Ohmura, A., Kasser, P., and Funk, M.: Climate at the equilibrium line of
glaciers, J. Glaciol., 38, 397–411, 1992.
Paul, F., Kääb, A., Maisch, M., Kellenberger, T. W., and Haeberli,
W.: The new remote-sensing-derived Swiss glacier inventory: I. Methods,
Ann. Glaciol., 34, 355–361, 2002.
Paul, F., Kääb, A., Maisch, M., Kellenberger, T. W., and Haeberli,
W.: Rapid disintegration of Alpine glaciers observed with satellite data,
Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L21402, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GL020816, 2004.
Paul, F., Barry, R., Cogley, J. G., Frey, H., Haeberli, W., Ohmura, A.,
Ommanney, C. S. L, Raup, B., Rivera, A., and Zemp, M.: Recommendations for the
compilation of glacier inventory data from digital sources, Ann.
Glaciol., 50, 119–126, 2009.
Paul, F., Frey, H., and Le Bris, R.: A new glacier inventory for the
European Alps from Landsat TM scenes of 2003: Challenges and results, Ann.
Glaciol., 52, 144–152, 2011.
Paul, F., Barrand, N. E., Baumann, S., Berthier, E., Bolch, T., Casey, K.,
Frey, H., Joshi, S. P., Konovalov, V., Le Bris, R., Mölg, N., Nosenko,
G., Nuth, C., Pope, A., Racoviteanu, A., Rastner, P., Raup, B., Scharrer,
K., Steffen, S., and Winsvold, S. H.: On the accuracy of glacier outlines
derived from remote sensing data, Ann. Glaciol., 54, 171–182,
2013.
Paul, F., Winsvold, S. H., Kääb, A., Nagler, T., and Schwaizer, G.:
Glacier remote sensing using Sentinel-2. Part II: Mapping glacier extents
and surface facies, and comparison to Landsat 8, Remote Sens., 8, 575,
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs8070575, 2016.
Paul, F., Bolch, T., Briggs, K., Kääb, A., McMillan, M., McNabb, R.,
Nagler, T., Nuth, C., Rastner, P., Strozzi, T., and Wuite, J.: Error sources
and guidelines for quality assessment of glacier area, elevation change, and
velocity products derived from satellite data in the Glaciers_cci project, Remote Sens. Environ., 203, 256–275, 2017.
Paul, F., Rastner, P., Azzoni, R.S., Diolaiuti, G., Fugazza, D., Le Bris,
R., Nemec, J., Rabatel, A., Ramusovic, M., Schwaizer, G., and Smiraglia, C.:
Glacier inventory for the Alps, PANGAEA,
https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.909133, 2019.
Pfeffer, W. T., Arendt, A.A., Bliss, A., Bolch, T., Cogley, J. G., Gardner,
A. S., Hagen, J.-O., Hock, R., Kaser, G., Kienholz, C., Miles, E.S.,
Moholdt, G., Mölg, N., Paul, F., Radic ?, V., Rastner, P., Raup, B.H.,
Rich, J., Sharp, M.J., and the Randolph Consortium: The Randolph Glacier
Inventory: A globally complete inventory of glaciers, J. Glaciol.,
60, 537–552, 2014.
Rabatel, A., Francou, B., Soruco, A., Gomez, J., Cáceres, B., Ceballos, J. L., Basantes, R., Vuille, M., Sicart, J.-E., Huggel, C., Scheel, M., Lejeune, Y., Arnaud, Y., Collet, M., Condom, T., Consoli, G., Favier, V., Jomelli, V., Galarraga, R., Ginot, P., Maisincho, L., Mendoza, J., Ménégoz, M., Ramirez, E., Ribstein, P., Suarez, W., Villacis, M., and Wagnon, P.: Current state of glaciers in the tropical Andes: a multi-century perspective on glacier evolution and climate change, The Cryosphere, 7, 81–102, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-81-2013, 2013.
Rabatel, A., Ceballos, J. L., Micheletti, N., Jordan, E., Braitmeier, M.,
Gonzales, J., Moelg, N., Ménégoz, M., Huggel, C., and Zemp, M.:
Toward an imminent extinction of Colombian glaciers?, Geogr. Ann. A, 100, 75–95, 2018.
Racoviteanu, A. E., Paul, F., Raup, B., Khalsa, S. J. S., and Armstrong, R.:
Challenges in glacier mapping from space: Recommendations from the Global
Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) initiative, Ann. Glaciol.,
50, 53–69, 2009.
Rastner, P., Bolch, T., Mölg, N., Machguth, H., Le Bris, R., and Paul, F.: The first complete inventory of the local glaciers and ice caps on Greenland, The Cryosphere, 6, 1483–1495, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-1483-2012, 2012.
Raup, B. and Khalsa, S. J. S.: GLIMS Analysis Tutorial, 15 pp., available at: http://www.glims.org/MapsAndDocs/guides.html (last access: 20 February 2020), 2007.
Reid, P. C., Hari, R. E., Beaugrand, G., Livingstone, D. M., Marty, C.,
Straile, D., Barichivich, J., Goberville, E., Adrian, R., Aono, Y., Brown,
R., Foster, J., Groisman, P., Hélaouët, P., Hsu, H., Kirby, R.,
Knight, J., Kraberg, A., Li, J., Lo, T., Myneni, R. B., North, R. P., Pounds,
J. A., Sparks, T., Stübi, R., Tian, Y., Wiltshire, K. H., Xiao, D., and
Zhu, Z.: Global impacts of the 1980s regime shift, Glob. Change Biol.,
22, 682–703, 2016.
RGI consortium: Randolph Glacier Inventory – A Dataset of Global Glacier
Outlines: Version 6.0, GLIMS Technical Report, 71 pp., available at:
http://glims.org/RGI/00_rgi60_TechnicalNote.pdf (last access: 20 February 2020),
2017.
Sakai, A., Nuimura, T., Fujita, K., Takenaka, S., Nagai, H., and Lamsal, D.: Climate regime of Asian glaciers revealed by GAMDAM glacier inventory, The Cryosphere, 9, 865–880, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-865-2015, 2015.
Smiraglia, C. and Diolaiuti, G. A.: The new Italian glacier inventory, 1 edn., Ev-K2-CNR Publications, Bergamo, 2015.
Smiraglia, P., Azzoni, R. S., D'Agata, C., Maragno, D., Fugazza, D., and
Diolaiuti, G. A.: The evolution of the Italian glaciers from the previous
data base to the new Italian inventory. Preliminary considerations and
results, Geogr. Fis. Din. Quat., 38, 79–87, 2015.
Stumpf, A., Michéa, D., and Malet, J.-P.: Improved co-registration of
Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 imagery for earth surface motion measurements,
Remote Sens., 10, 160, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10020160, 2018.
Takaku, J., Tadono, T., and Tsutsui, K.: Generation of high resolution
global DSM from ALOS PRISM, ISPRS Archives, XL-4,
243–248, 2014.
Vaughan, D. G., Comiso, J. C., Allison, I., Carrasco, J., Kaser, G., Kwok,
R., Mote, P., Murray, T., Paul, F., Ren, J., Rignot, E., Solomina, O.,
Steffen, K., and Zhang, T.: Observations: Cryosphere, in: Climate Change
2013: Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited
by: Stocker, T. F., Qin, D., Plattner, G.-K., Tignor, M., Allen, S. K.,
Boschung, J., Nauels, A., Xia, Y., Bex, V., and Midgley, P. M., Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, UK, and New York, NY, USA, 317–382,
2013.
Wouters, B., Gardner, A. S., and Moholdt, G.: Global glacier mass loss during
the GRACE satellite mission (2002–2016), Front. Earth Sci., 7, 96,
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00096, 2019.
Zemp, M., Hoelzle, M., and Haeberli, W.: Distributed modelling of the
regional climatic equilibrium line altitude of glaciers in the European
Alps, Global Planet. Change, 56, 83–100, 2007.
Zemp, M., Paul, F., Hoelzle, M., and Haeberli, W.: Alpine glacier
fluctuations 1850–2000: An overview and spatio-temporal analysis of
available data and its representativity, in: Darkening Peaks: Glacier Retreat, Science, and Society, edited by: Orlove, B., Wiegandt, E., and
Luckman, B., University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 152–167, 2008.
Zemp, M., Frey, H., Gärtner-Roer, I., Nussbaumer, S. U., Hoelzle, M.,
Paul, F., Haeberli, W., Denzinger, F., Ahlstroem, A. P., Anderson, B.,
Bajracharya, S., Baroni, C., Braun, L. N., Caceres, B. E., Casassa, G., Cobos,
G., Davila, L. R., Delgado Granados, H., Demuth, M. N., Espizua, L., Fischer,
A., Fujita, K., Gadek, B., Ghazanfar, A., Hagen, J. O., Holmlund, P., Karimi,
N., Li, Z., Pelto, M., Pitte, P., Popovnin, V. V., Portocarrero, C. A., Prinz,
R., Sangewar, C. V., Severskiy, I., Sigurdsson, O., Soruco, A., Usubaliev,
R., and Vincent, C.: Historically unprecedented global glacier changes in
the early 21st century, J. Glaciol., 61, 745-762, 2015.
Zemp, M., Huss, M., Thibert, E., Eckert, N., McNabb, R., Huber, J.,
Barandun, M., Machguth, H., Nussbaumer, S. U., Gärtner-Roer, I., Thomson,
L., Paul, F., Maussion, F., Kutuzov, S., and Cogley, J. G.: Global glacier
mass changes and their contributions to sea-level rise from 1961 to 2016,
Nature, 568, 382–386, 2019.
Short summary
We have used Sentinel-2 satellite data from 2015 and 2016 to create a new glacier inventory for the European Alps. Outlines from earlier national inventories were used to guide manual corrections (e.g. ice in shadow or under debris cover) of the automatically mapped clean ice. We mapped 4395 glaciers, covering 1806 km2, an area loss of about 14 % (or −1.2 % per year) compared to the last inventory of 2003. We conclude that glacier shrinkage in the Alps has continued unabated since the mid-1980s.
We have used Sentinel-2 satellite data from 2015 and 2016 to create a new glacier inventory for...
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint