Worldwide version-controlled database of glacier thickness observations

• Published in: Earth system science data Vol. 12; no. 4; pp. 3039 - 3055
• Main Authors: 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
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Katlenburg-Lindau Copernicus GmbH 24.11.2020; Copernicus Publications
• Subjects: Airborne radar; Best practices; Data; Data management; Drilling; Glacier ice; Glacier measurements; Glacier thickness; Glaciers; Ice cover; Interoperability; Measurement; Metadata; Packaging; Receivers & amplifiers; Robustness (mathematics); Sea level; Sea level rise; Software; Software development tools; Source code; Spatial data; Thickness measurement; New Zealand; South America; Alps; Asia; Europe; Antarctica; Switzerland; Greenland; Oceania
• ISSN: 1866-3516; 1866-3508; 1866-3516
• DOI: 10.5194/essd-12-3039-2020

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.