OMG GLISTIN-A: Greenland Glacier Surface Elevations

Greenland Ice Sheet outlet glaciers are mapped in this dataset of 50-meter resolution digital elevation models (DEMs). The data were collected by NASA's airborne GLISTIN-A radar between 2016 and 2019, comprising 81 repeated swaths around the ice sheet periphery. This Level 3 product is processed for consistency to facilitate analysis of year-to-year glacier surface elevation changes.

Use Cases

• Calculating glacier thinning or thickening rates based on repeated, consistent elevation measurements.
• Modeling ice flow and discharge using detailed surface topography of outlet glaciers.
• Validating satellite-derived elevation models against high-resolution airborne radar data.
• Generating custom DEMs at different resolutions or projections using the provided Python package.

Strengths

• Provides repeated, consistent measurements over 81 specific flight lines from 2016 to 2019.
• Offers high-resolution (50m) gridded data processed from original 3m measurements, with filtering and geoid correction.
• Includes tools for user-customized reprojection and resampling, enhancing usability.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: column names, row counts, and exact file sizes are unspecified across all platforms.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2019, 2026) create uncertainty about dataset maintenance and versioning.
• Spatial coverage is limited to the periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet, not the entire ice sheet.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) mission.

Collection Method

Airborne Ka-Band single-pass interferometry from the GLacier and Land Ice Surface Topography Interferometer (GLISTIN-A) radar.

Time Range

2016 to 2019

Freshness

Last updated dates conflict: 2019-11 30 on NASA Earthdata vs. 2026-03-12 and 2026-04-09 on Data.gov.

Geography

Outlet glaciers around the periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet.