MEaSUREs Annual Greenland Outlet Glacier Terminus Positions from SAR Mosaics, Version 2
Data set id:
NSIDC-0642
DOI: 10.5067/ESFWE11AVFKW
This is the most recent version of these data.
Version Summary
Version Summary
New major version
Overview
This data set, part of the NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) program, consists of annual, digitized (polyline) ice front positions for 239 outlet glaciers in Greenland. Ice front positions are derived from Sentinel-1A, Sentinel-1B, and RADARSAT-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) mosaics, plus imagery from Landsat 1 through Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 and Landsat 8. Although temporal coverage varies by glacier, data are available for the winter seasons 1972–1973 through 2020–2021. Data are provided as shapefiles.
See Greenland Ice Mapping Project (GrIMP) for related data.
Parameter(s):
GLACIER EXTENT
Platform(s):
LANDSAT-1, LANDSAT-2, LANDSAT-3, LANDSAT-4, LANDSAT-5, LANDSAT-7, LANDSAT-8, RADARSAT-1, Sentinel-1A, Sentinel-1B
Sensor(s):
C-SAR, ETM+, MSS, OLI, SAR, TM
Data Format(s):
Shapefile
Temporal Coverage:
16 September 1972 to 25 March 2021
Temporal Resolution:
- 1 year
Spatial Resolution:
- 15 m to 50 m
- 15 m to 50 m
Spatial Reference System(s):
WGS 84 / NSIDC Sea Ice Polar Stereographic North
EPSG:3413
Spatial Coverage:
N:
83
S:
60
E:
-14
W:
-75
Blue outlined yellow areas on the map below indicate the spatial coverage for this data set.
Data Access & Tools
A free NASA Earthdata Login account is required to access these data. Learn More
Sample Data Image
Image
This map shows terminus positions for the Alison Glacier (Nunatakassap Sermia), color-coded by year. Credit: NASA MEaSUREs GrIMP Data: ESA, USGS, CSA
Documentation
Help Articles
How to Articles
Many NSIDC DAAC data sets can be accessed using the NSIDC DAAC's Data Access Tool. This tool provides the ability to search and filter data with spatial and temporal constraints using a map-based interface.Users have the option to
Harmony API Quickstart Guide: Customizing NASA NSIDC DAAC data in Earthdata Cloud
We recommend using the Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) or a GIS to reproject geoTIFF files.
There are external Jupyter notebooks available that can be used to search for GrIMP products and incorporate them into a new QGIS project:
All data from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) is directly accessible through our HTTPS file system using Wget or curl. This article provides basic command line instructions for accessing data using this method.