GLIMS Global Glacier Inventory from Satellite Observations

GLIMS is an international initiative aiming to repeatedly survey the world's estimated 200,000 glaciers. It creates a unique inventory storing information on glacier extent and rates of change, built from contributions by many glaciological institutions coordinated regionally. Data is derived from satellite instruments like ASTER on Terra and LANDSAT, alongside historical observations.

Use Cases

• Analyzing glacier outline changes over time using geospatial vector data.
• Studying regional glacier mass balance by comparing multi-temporal inventory entries.
• Mapping the global distribution of mountain glaciers and ice caps.
• Integrating glacier extent data with climate models for sea-level rise projections.
• Visualizing glacier retreat in tools like Google Earth using KML exports.

Strengths

• International consortium provides data coverage for many global regions through Regional Coordinators.
• Uses data from established satellite sensors like ASTER and LANDSAT for consistent observation.
• Data is provided in multiple GIS-compatible formats including Shapefiles and KML for broad usability.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, column names, and dataset size are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on license details, with one specifying 'other-license-specified' and another listing 'None'.

Provenance

Source

NSIDCV0, as part of the international GLIMS initiative.

Collection Method

Data gathered from satellite remote sensing (ASTER, LANDSAT) and historical observations, compiled by regional glaciological institutions.

Time Range

null

Freshness

2026-03-13 02:37:25.181198

Geography

Global coverage of the world's mountain glaciers and ice caps.