Glacier outlines and surface area of Swedish glaciers
Tarfala Research Station staff
This dataset contains outlines and surface area of the 277 Swedish glaciers (count as of the year 2023) mapped for the years 2017-2023 by Houssais et al. (2025), and updated annually thereafter.
The dataset represents the most recent inventory of Swedish glaciers. The compilation of the dataset became possible by combining Sentinel-2 imagery, semi-automated mapping procedures and the open-source Margin Change Quantification Tool (Lea et al., 2018).
As glaciers shrink, the question of how to define an extinct glacier needs to be addressed. In this dataset, we adopt the following definition (of two alternative ones) proposed by the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) initiative: A glacier is considered extinct when it has vanished completely.
As a complement to the this dataset on glacier surface area, mass balance data is available for the four Swedish reference glaciers, see links below.
TerrestrialGlaciersGlacier outlines, Glacier surface area
Download dataMass balance data for reference glaciers is available at:
Glacier surface mass balance for Storglaciären, Northern Sweden
Glacier surface mass balance for Rabots glaciär, Northern Sweden
Glacier surface mass balance for Rivgojiehkki, Northern Sweden
Glacier surface mass balance for Moarhmmáglaciären, Northern Sweden
Other links:
Swedish Glacier Data at the Bolin Centre Database
GLIMS Guide on Extinct Glaciers
Name
Version
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 e78:1-18. https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2025.10057
Lea J (2018) The Google Earth Engine Digitisation Tool (GEEDiT) and the Margin Change Quantification Tool (MaQiT) – Simple tools for the rapid mapping and quantification of changing Earth surface margins. Earth Surface Dynamics (ESurf) 6:551–561. https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-551-2018
Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI 7.0) Consortium (2023) Randolph Glacier Inventory - A Dataset of Global Glacier Outlines, Version 7.0. Boulder,139 Colorado USA. NSIDC: National Snow and Ice Data Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/f6jmovy5navz
Data description
The dataset is provided as a (.zip) file containing, for each seven years starting with 2017 and ending with 2023 a shape file (.shp) with 277 glacier front outlines, and associated (.cpg), (.dbf), (.prj), (.qml) and (.shx) files. The files are exported from the open-access software QGIS (https://qgis.org).
The attribute table of each shapefile (.dbf) lists the following for each glacier:
rgi_id: Randolph Glacier Inventory ID.glims_id: Global Land Ice Measurements from Space ID.wgms_id: World Glacier Monitoring Service ID.date: date of satellite image on which the mapping is based, in YYYY-MM-DD format.wgms_name: name as in WGMS.lant_name: name as according to Lantmäteriet (https://ortnamn.lantmateriet.se)bolin_name: name as according to https://bolin.su.se/data/svenskaglaciarer/other_name: possible other names.year: year for which outline is presented.area: area in km².region: region in which glacier is located (Helagsfjället, Kaitum, Kebnekaise, Riksgränsen-Abisko, Sarek, Sulitelma, Vindelfjällen)
Comments
This dataset has also been submitted to GLIMS in July 2025 so that the current version of the Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI 7.0) maintained and published by the RGI Consortium (2023) can be updated with the most recent mapping results by Houssais et al. (2025). The current RGI 7.0 contains slightly less Swedish glaciers than reported in Houssais et al. (2025), and also overestimated glacier surface area on occasions, for details, see Houssais et al. (2025).
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 > Cryosphere > Glaciers/ice sheets > Glaciers
GCMD location
Continent > Europe > Northern Europe > Scandinavia > Sweden
Dataset language
English
Begin date
2017-01-01
End date
2023-12-31