Satellite-derived Alaskan ice-dammed lake drainage events (1985 - 2020)

• Main Authors: Brianna Rick, Daniel McGrath
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Hydroshare
• Subjects: glacial lake outburst flood; ice-dammed lakes; alaska; hazards; glacial lakes; Glacial Lake; Dammed Lake; McGrath; McCoy; glacier; Alaska
• Online Access: https://search.dataone.org/view/sha256:5c9096ab8953d4e9d4b969213cd547d5b0273f299c4bdee47a41a524f0fcdc26

Ice-dammed lakes impounded behind glacier dams can undergo multiple fill-and-drain cycles, and rapid drainage can produce damaging floods with significant societal and ecological impacts. Using multitemporal satellite imagery (Landsat and Sentinel-2), we documented 1150 drainage events from 106 ice-dammed lakes over 1985–2020, with an average of 66 events per year over 2015–2020. This dataset provides each ice-dammed lake's location (latitude, longitude), and the image dates before and after a lake drainage event was observed. This data is associated with the following publication: Rick, B., McGrath, D., McCoy, S.W. et al. Unchanged frequency and decreasing magnitude of outbursts from ice-dammed lakes in Alaska. Nat Commun 14, 6138 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41794-6