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Glacier outlines and surface area of Swedish glaciers

Tarfala Research Station staff

Newer versions of this dataset are available

This dataset contains outlines and surface area of the 277 Swedish glaciers (count as of the year 2023) mapped for the years 2017⁠ – ⁠2023, 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.

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 as separate datasets.

TerrestrialGlaciersGlacier outlinesGlacier surface areaTarfala

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Name

tarfala-swedish-glacier-outlines

Version

1

Citation

Tarfala Research Station staff (2025) Glacier outlines and surface area of Swedish glaciers. Dataset version 1. Bolin Centre Database. https://doi.org/10.17043/tarfala-swedish-glacier-outlines-1

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 contains, 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.

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
  • 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).

Mass balance data

Mass balance data for reference glaciers is available at:

Other links

Project

Base program of Tarfala Research Station

Publisher

Bolin Centre Database

License

Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) v1.0

First name

Nina

Last name or organisation

Kirchner

Email address

nina.kirchner@su.se

Address

Tarfala Research Station and Department of Physical Geography; Stockholm University

Postal code

SE-106 91

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

DOI

10.17043/tarfala-swedish-glacier-outlines-1

Time

2025-09-03T07:59:53.139+00:00

Versions

  • 2 2025-11-16T15:23:50.348+00:00
  • 1 2025-09-03T07:59:53.139+00:00
  • 1 2025-08-08T10:04:17.615+00:00