GLIMS Current: Global Land Ice Measurements From Space

Caution: This dataset has been superseded by GLIMS/20230607.

Dataset Availability

1750-01-01T00:00:00Z–2023-06-07T00:00:00Z

Dataset Provider

National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSDIC)

Earth Engine Snippet

FeatureCollection
ee.FeatureCollection("GLIMS/current")

FeatureView
ui.Map.FeatureViewLayer("GLIMS/current_FeatureView")

Tags

ice

landcover

nasa

nsidc

snow

table

glacier

glims

Description

Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) is an international initiative with the goal of repeatedly surveying the world's estimated 200,000 glaciers.

The project seeks to create a globally comprehensive inventory of land ice, including measurements of glacier area, geometry, surface velocity, and snow line elevation. To perform these analyses, the GLIMS project uses satellite data, primarily from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), as well as historical information derived from maps and aerial photographs.

Each feature in this dataset is a polygonal boundary of a glacier at the time of analysis. A few glacier IDs have hundreds of distinct rows over time.

This dataset is a snapshot of the inventory of glacier boundaries as of June 7, 2023, providing over 1,100,000 rows.

Table Schema

Table Schema

Name	Type	Description
analysts	STRING	Name(s) of data contributor(s)
anlys_id	DOUBLE	ID of a glacier at a particular time
anlys_time	STRING	When the analysis was done
area	DOUBLE	Area of the glacier in the plane of the map projection in square kilometers
chief_affl	STRING	Affiliation of the chief of the regional center
db_area	DOUBLE	Same as 'area', but recomputed by the GLIMS project
geog_area	STRING	Name of geographic region covered by the regional center
glac_id	STRING	The GLIMS glacier ID
glac_name	STRING	The glacier name. ~80% of the rows equal 'None'
glac_stat	STRING	Glacier status, either 'exists' or 'None'
length	DOUBLE	Length of the glacier perimeter in meters
line_type	STRING	Glacier record type, e.g. 'glac_bound' for glaciers, or other values for internal rocks, snowlines, water features, etc.
local_id	STRING	ID assigned by the contributing institution or regional center
max_elev	DOUBLE	Highest part of the glacier, in meters above sea level
mean_elev	DOUBLE	Mean elevation of the glacier, in meters above sea level
min_elev	DOUBLE	Lowest part of the glacier, in meters above sea level
parent_id	STRING	ID of the glacier that is the parent of this glacier
primeclass	DOUBLE	WGMS glacier classification number
proc_desc	STRING	Description of processing done on this record
rc_id	DOUBLE	ID used by the regional center
rec_status	STRING	Record status
release_dt	STRING	Date data was released, in YYYY-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss format
src_date	STRING	Date of source imagery used to create the outline
subm_id	DOUBLE	The submission ID assigned by GLIMS
submitters	STRING	Name(s) of data submitter(s)
wgms_id	STRING	World Glacier Monitoring Service ID
width	DOUBLE	Width of the glacier in meters

Terms of Use

Terms of Use

For the creation of any reports, publications, new data sets, derived products, or services resulting from the data set, users should cite: GLIMS and NSIDC (2005, updated 2013): Global Land Ice Measurements from Space glacier database. Compiled and made available by the international GLIMS community and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder CO, U.S.A., doi:10.7265/N5V98602

DOIs

• https://doi.org/10.7265/N5V98602

Explore with Earth Engine

Important: Earth Engine is a platform for petabyte-scale scientific analysis and visualization of geospatial datasets, both for public benefit and for business and government users. Earth Engine is free to use for research, education, and nonprofit use. To get started, please register for Earth Engine access.

Code Editor (JavaScript)

var dataset = ee.FeatureCollection('GLIMS/current');
var visParams = {
  palette: ['gray', 'cyan', 'blue'],
  min: 0.0,
  max: 10.0,
  opacity: 0.8,
};
var image = ee.Image().float().paint(dataset, 'area');
Map.setCenter(-35.618, 66.743, 7);
Map.addLayer(image, visParams, 'GLIMS/current');
Map.addLayer(dataset, null, 'for Inspector', false);

Open in Code Editor

Visualize as a FeatureView

A FeatureView is a view-only, accelerated representation of a FeatureCollection. For more details, visit the FeatureView documentation.

Important: Earth Engine is a platform for petabyte-scale scientific analysis and visualization of geospatial datasets, both for public benefit and for business and government users. Earth Engine is free to use for research, education, and nonprofit use. To get started, please register for Earth Engine access.

Code Editor (JavaScript)

var fvLayer = ui.Map.FeatureViewLayer('GLIMS/current_FeatureView');

var visParams = {
  color: {
    property: 'area',
    mode: 'linear',
    palette: ['gray', 'cyan', 'blue'],
    min: 0.0,
    max: 10.0
  },
  opacity: 0.8,
  polygonStrokeOpacity: 0
};

fvLayer.setVisParams(visParams);
fvLayer.setName('GLIMS/current');

Map.setCenter(-35.618, 66.743, 7);
Map.add(fvLayer);

Open in Code Editor

GLIMS Current: Global Land Ice Measurements From Space

Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) is an international initiative with the goal of repeatedly surveying the world's estimated 200,000 glaciers. The project seeks to create a globally comprehensive inventory of land ice, including measurements of glacier area, geometry, surface velocity, and snow line elevation. To perform these analyses, …

GLIMS/current, ice,landcover,nasa,nsidc,snow,table

1750-01-01T00:00:00Z/2023-06-07T00:00:00Z

Google Earth Engine

https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets

• https://doi.org/10.7265/N5V98602
• https://doi.org/10.7265/N5V98602