Glacier outlines and surface area of Swedish glaciers

Tarfala Research Station staff

This dataset contains outlines and surface area of all Swedish glaciers mapped for the years 2017⁠ – ⁠2024.

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 this dataset on glacier surface area, mass balance data is available for the four Swedish reference glaciers as separate datasets.

TerrestrialGlaciersGlacier outlinesGlacier surface areaTarfala

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

Houssais M, Dahlkvist J, Barnett J, Wang Z, Skelton A, Kirchner N (2025, in review) Swedish glaciers: Unprecedented 21st century shrinkage during 2023-2024, including the complete loss of eight glaciers. Submitted to Geophysical Research Letters

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 includes 8 shape files (shp) with the glacier front outlines, one for each of the eight years from 2017 to 2024, and associated dbf and shx files. The files are exported from the open-access software QGIS.

The attribute table of the shape files 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 Svenska glaciärer
• 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

Version 1 of this dataset, with data for 2017⁠ – ⁠2023, was 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).

Swedish glacier counts and area reported in Houssais et al. (2025) and version 1 of this dataset were also slightly updated during the mapping of their 2024 outlines, and include now a corrected version of Salajiegna glaciers’ area as well as an additional glacier, Storsylglaciären, that was previously not included due to an erroneous country border shapefile (Houssais et al. 2025, in review). The update marginally affects the combined glacier area in 2017 (237.3 km² instead of the previously reported 236.6 km²) and in 2023 (210.1 km² instead of the previously reported 210.0 km²), and the total glacier count as of 2023 (278 instead of 277).

Eight Swedish glaciers have vanished completely between 2023 and 2024, rendering a total count of 270 Swedish glaciers as of the end of 2024.

Mass balance data

Mass 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

Version history

Version 2

Data for 2017⁠ – ⁠2024

Version 1

Initial release. Data for 2017⁠ – ⁠2023

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

2024-12-31

DOI

Time

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