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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ESSDD</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>Earth System Science Data Discussions</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ESSDD</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">1866-3591</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name></publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/essd-2026-273</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>A Decade of Monthly Frontal Ablation at 147 Tidewater Glaciers in Svalbard</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Pyles</surname>
<given-names>Dakota</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3594-1793</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Dreier</surname>
<given-names>Marcel</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1929-1695</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wendleder</surname>
<given-names>Anna</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kochtitzky</surname>
<given-names>Will</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9487-1509</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gourmelon</surname>
<given-names>Nora</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3760-0184</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Christlein</surname>
<given-names>Vincent</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Seehaus</surname>
<given-names>Thorsten</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5055-8959</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Institut für Geographie, Department of Geography and Geosciences, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Pattern Recognition Lab, Computer Science Department, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Microwaves and Radar Institute, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Weßling, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>School of Marine and Environmental Programs, University of New England, Biddeford, ME, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>18</day>
<month>05</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>42</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Dakota Pyles et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-273/">This article is available from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-273/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-273/essd-2026-273.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-273/essd-2026-273.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>We present a novel, regional-scale monthly analysis of frontal ablation at 147 tidewater glacier basins in Svalbard from January 2015 through December 2024. A multi-temporal, deep-learning segmentation model was implemented to reduce the manual labor cost inherent to mapping 203,294 terminus positions, yielding 15,647 monthly-averaged calving fronts derived from Sentinel-1 SAR imagery. In addition, a monthly ice discharge time series is developed from the extensive ITS_LIVE velocity database, as well as regionally existing ice thickness products. To account for ice mass loss due to surface processes between the fluxgate and terminus (i.e. the glacier domain), the climatic mass balance is integrated over the domain area using monthly aggregated daily outputs from the MAR regional climate model. The result is a frontal ablation time series at an unprecedented spatio-temporal scale with 15,500 monthly estimates of frontal ablation, allowing new insights and progress towards a process understanding of frontal ablation. The mean annual frontal ablation rate across all glaciers from 2015 to 2024 is 21.57 &amp;plusmn; 0.97 Gt a&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;. The Austfonna ice cap accounts for ~48% of Svalbard&apos;s frontal ablation, due to the dominant Austfonna Basin 3, with a 5.05 &amp;plusmn; 0.35 Gt a&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt; annually averaged rate. As frontal ablation measurements have historically been limited to annual and decadal temporal resolution, this dataset addresses the intra-annual and seasonal variability knowledge gap, while providing valuable reference data for the modeling community. The frontal ablation, ice discharge, and calving front time series are publicly available at &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19481461&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener&quot;&gt;https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19481461&lt;/a&gt; (Pyles et al., 2026).</p>
</abstract>
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<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft</funding-source>
<award-id>DFG SE 3091/4-1 | CH 2080/5-1</award-id>
<award-id>DFG SE3091/5-1</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Elitenetzwerk Bayern</funding-source>
<award-id>IDP M3OCCA</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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