Front positions of Storglaciären, Kebnekaise Mountains, Northern Sweden
Tarfala Research Station staff
This dataset contains 18 outlines of frontal positions of Storglaciären, mapped between the years 1910 and 2024 and updated annually from 2025.
Storglaciären is one of Sweden’s four so-called reference glaciers (glaciers for which more than 30 years of continuous mass balance measurements are available) included in the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) database. The surface mass balance series for Storglaciären is also the World’s longest detailed one (https://bolin.su.se/data/tarfala-storglaciaren-surface-mass-balance-1).
Measurements of glacier front variations were initiated in the late 1800’s and were among the first metrics employed worldwide to characterize glacier change. They continue to be highly relevant because glacier frontal variation is a concept that is intuitively comprehensible. When visualized, imagery of frontal variation can play a pivotal role in raising awareness among broad audiences for glaciers as sensitive climate indicators potentially facing widespread extinction.
TerrestrialGlaciersFrontal position, Storglaciären
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Citation
References
Houssais M, Horemuz M, Barnett J, Bergwall A, Kirchner N (2025) Frontal variations and surface area changes of Swedish glaciers during 2017–2023. Journal of Glaciology 71. https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2025.10057
Koblet T, Gärtner-Roer I, Zemp M, Jansson P, Thee P, Haeberli W, Holmlund P (2010) Reanalysis of multi-temporal aerial images of Storglaciären, Sweden (1959–99) – Part 1: Determination of length, area, and volume changes. The Cryosphere 4:333–343. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-4-333-2010.
Lantmäteriet (The Swedish mapping, cadastral and land registration authority, lantmateriet.se): orthophotographs by ©Lantmäteriet.
RGI Consortium (2023) Randolph Glacier Inventory - A Dataset of Global Glacier Outlines, Version 7. https://doi.org/10.5067/f6jmovy5navz
Houssais M, Dahlkvist J, Barnett J, Kirchner N (in review) Swedish glaciers: Unprecedented 21st century shrinkage during 2023-2024, including the complete loss of eight glaciers. Earth’s Future (submitted 14 July 2025)
Data description
The dataset is provided as a (.zip) file containing a a shape file (.shp) with 18 glacier front outlines, and associated (.cpg), (.dbf) (.prj), (.qml) and (.shx) files. The files are exported from the open-access software QGIS (qgis.org). For each frontal position, the shape-file’s attribute table lists the year corresponding to the frontal position, and the source from which the frontal position was digitized. Also, when known, an exact date is provided for a mapped frontal position.
Glacier front positions are provided for the years 1910, 1959, 1960, 1969, 1980, 1990, 1994, 1999, 2002, 2008, 2017-2023, and 2024.
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The mapping for 1910 has been conducted by manual digitization on high resolution aerial orthophoto from the year 2008 (©Läntmateriet) of the frontal moraine corresponding to the Little Ice Age maximum extent.
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The mapping for 1959, 1969, 1980, 1990, and 1999, has been conducted by georeferencing the result figure presented in Koblet et al. (2010).
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The mapping for 1960, 1994, and 2008, has been conducted by manual digitization based on high resolution aerial orthophotos of these years (©Läntmateriet).
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Storglaciären’s frontal position in the year 2002 is sourced from RGI Consortium (2023) and did therefore not need to be mapped.
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Storglaciären’s frontal positions in the years 2017 through 2023 is sourced from Houssais et al. (2025) and did therefore not need to be mapped.
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Storglaciären’s frontal positions in the year 2024 is sourced from Houssais et al. (in review) and did therefore not need to be mapped.
Project
Base program of Tarfala Research Station
License
Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) v1.0
First name
Nina
Last name or organisation
Kirchner
Email address
Address
Tarfala Research Station, and Dept. of Physical Geography, Stockholm University
Postal code
10691
City
Stockholm
Country
Sweden
GCMD science keyword
Earth science services > Data analysis and visualization > Geographic information systems
GCMD location
Continent > Europe > Northern Europe > Scandinavia > Sweden
Dataset language
English
Begin date
1910-01-01
End date
2024-12-31