Worldwide version-controlled database of glacier thickness observations

Welty, Ethan; Zemp, Michael; Navarro, Francisco; Huss, Matthias; Fürst, Johannes J.; Gärtner-Roer, Isabelle; Landmann, Johannes; Machguth, Horst; Naegeli, Kathrin; Andreassen, Liss M.; Farinotti, Daniel; Li, Huilin; GlaThiDa Contributors

doi:10.5194/essd-12-3039-2020

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Worldwide version-controlled database of glacier thickness observations

Welty, Ethan Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado, Boulder, USA - World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), University of Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
Zemp, Michael World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), University of Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
Navarro, Francisco Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Huss, Matthias Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland - Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, Switzerland - Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
Fürst, Johannes J. Department of Geography, University of Erlangen–Nuremberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
Gärtner-Roer, Isabelle World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), University of Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
Landmann, Johannes World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), University of Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland - Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland - Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Machguth, Horst Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland - World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), University of Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
Naegeli, Kathrin Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland - World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), University of Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
Andreassen, Liss M. Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), Oslo, Norway
Farinotti, Daniel Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland - Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Li, Huilin Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Chin
GlaThiDa Contributors

24.11.2020

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Earth System Science Data. - 2020, vol. 12, no. 4, p. 3039–3055

English Although worldwide inventories of glacier area have been coordinated internationally for several decades, a similar effort for glacier ice thicknesses was only initiated in 2013. Here, we present the third version of the Glacier Thickness Database (GlaThiDa v3), which includes 3 854 279 thickness measurements distributed over roughly 3000 glaciers worldwide. Overall, 14 % of global glacier area is now within 1 km of a thickness measurement (located on the same glacier) – a significant improvement over GlaThiDa v2, which covered only 6 % of global glacier area and only 1100 glaciers. Improvements in measurement coverage increase the robustness of numerical interpolations and model extrapolations, resulting in better estimates of regional to global glacier volumes and their potential contributions to sea-level rise.In this paper, we summarize the sources and compilation of glacier thickness data and the spatial and temporal coverage of the resulting database. In addition, we detail our use of open-source metadata formats and software tools to describe the data, validate the data format and content against this metadata description, and track changes to the data following modern data management best practices. Archived versions of GlaThiDa are available from the World Glacier Monitoring Service (e.g., v3.1.0, from which this paper was generated: https://doi.org/10.5904/wgms-glathida-2020-10; GlaThiDa Consortium, 2020), while the development version is available on GitLab (https://gitlab.com/wgms/glathida, last access: 9 November 2020).

Faculty

Faculté des sciences et de médecine

Department

Département de Géosciences

Language