Airborne Laser Altimetry Profiles of 46 Alaskan Glaciers

Airborne laser altimetry profiles and outlines for 46 glaciers across eight mountain ranges in Alaska and British Columbia, Canada. NASA collected this data between 1994 and 2001, providing surface elevation measurements accurate to about 0.3 meters. The dataset enables estimation of long-term glacier elevation changes by comparison with historical maps.

Use Cases

• Calculating glacier surface elevation change over time by comparing laser altimetry profiles with existing topographic maps.
• Mapping glacier outlines and extents for specific mountain ranges like the Harding Icefield or the Alaska Range.
• Validating the accuracy of other remote sensing elevation data against high-precision (0.3 m) airborne laser measurements.
• Analyzing regional glacier health trends across different Alaskan mountain ranges from 1994 to 2001.

Strengths

• High measurement precision with surface elevation profiles accurate to about 0.3 meters.
• Covers a specific set of 46 glaciers across eight distinct mountain ranges in Alaska and Canada.
• Provides a multi-year time series from 1994 to 2001 for analyzing change.

Limitations

• Conflicting metadata: the last updated date is reported as 2001-06-30 on NASA Earthdata but 2026-03-13 on Data.gov, suggesting a metadata inconsistency.
• Specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are unknown across all platforms.
• Data collection ended in 2001, limiting analysis to that historical period.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measured with an airborne laser altimetry system.

Time Range

1994 - 2001

Freshness

2001-06-30 23:59:59.999000

Geography

46 glaciers in Alaska, USA, and British Columbia, Canada, across the Alaska Range, Wrangell Mountains, Chugach Mountains, Chigmit Mountains, Kenai Mountains (Harding Icefield), St. Elias Mountains, Takhinsha Mountains, and Coast Mountains.