The length of the world's glaciers - a new approach for the global calculation of center lines
Glacier length is an important measure of glacier geometry. Nevertheless, global glacier inventories are mostly lacking length data. Only recently semi-automated approaches to measure glacier length have been developed and applied regionally. Here we present a first global assessment of glacier leng...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
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2014
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ftdtupubl:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/9ee40211-827f-4948-976b-329e41c07104 2024-05-19T07:39:35+00:00 The length of the world's glaciers - a new approach for the global calculation of center lines Machguth, Horst Huss, M. 2014 application/pdf https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/9ee40211-827f-4948-976b-329e41c07104 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1741-2014 https://backend.orbit.dtu.dk/ws/files/126705095/tc_8_1741_2014.pdf eng eng https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/9ee40211-827f-4948-976b-329e41c07104 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Machguth , H & Huss , M 2014 , ' The length of the world's glaciers - a new approach for the global calculation of center lines ' , Cryosphere , vol. 8 , no. 5 , pp. 1741-1755 . https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1741-2014 article 2014 ftdtupubl https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1741-2014 2024-04-24T00:39:49Z Glacier length is an important measure of glacier geometry. Nevertheless, global glacier inventories are mostly lacking length data. Only recently semi-automated approaches to measure glacier length have been developed and applied regionally. Here we present a first global assessment of glacier length using an automated method that relies on glacier surface slope, distance to the glacier margins and a set of trade-off functions. The method is developed for East Greenland, evaluated for East Greenland as well as for Alaska and eventually applied to all similar to 200 000 glaciers around the globe. The evaluation highlights accurately calculated glacier length where digital elevation model (DEM) quality is high (East Greenland) and limited accuracy on low-quality DEMs (parts of Alaska). Measured length of very small glaciers is subject to a certain level of ambiguity. The global calculation shows that only about 1.5% of all glaciers are longer than 10 km, with Bering Glacier (Alaska/Canada) being the longest glacier in the world at a length of 196 km. Based on the output of our algorithm we derive global and regional area-length scaling laws. Differences among regional scaling parameters appear to be related to characteristics of topography and glacier mass balance. The present study adds glacier length as a key parameter to global glacier inventories. Global and regional scaling laws might prove beneficial in conceptual glacier models. Article in Journal/Newspaper East Greenland glacier glacier glacier* glaciers Greenland Alaska Technical University of Denmark: DTU Orbit The Cryosphere 8 5 1741 1755 |
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Open Polar |
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Technical University of Denmark: DTU Orbit |
op_collection_id |
ftdtupubl |
language |
English |
description |
Glacier length is an important measure of glacier geometry. Nevertheless, global glacier inventories are mostly lacking length data. Only recently semi-automated approaches to measure glacier length have been developed and applied regionally. Here we present a first global assessment of glacier length using an automated method that relies on glacier surface slope, distance to the glacier margins and a set of trade-off functions. The method is developed for East Greenland, evaluated for East Greenland as well as for Alaska and eventually applied to all similar to 200 000 glaciers around the globe. The evaluation highlights accurately calculated glacier length where digital elevation model (DEM) quality is high (East Greenland) and limited accuracy on low-quality DEMs (parts of Alaska). Measured length of very small glaciers is subject to a certain level of ambiguity. The global calculation shows that only about 1.5% of all glaciers are longer than 10 km, with Bering Glacier (Alaska/Canada) being the longest glacier in the world at a length of 196 km. Based on the output of our algorithm we derive global and regional area-length scaling laws. Differences among regional scaling parameters appear to be related to characteristics of topography and glacier mass balance. The present study adds glacier length as a key parameter to global glacier inventories. Global and regional scaling laws might prove beneficial in conceptual glacier models. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Machguth, Horst Huss, M. |
spellingShingle |
Machguth, Horst Huss, M. The length of the world's glaciers - a new approach for the global calculation of center lines |
author_facet |
Machguth, Horst Huss, M. |
author_sort |
Machguth, Horst |
title |
The length of the world's glaciers - a new approach for the global calculation of center lines |
title_short |
The length of the world's glaciers - a new approach for the global calculation of center lines |
title_full |
The length of the world's glaciers - a new approach for the global calculation of center lines |
title_fullStr |
The length of the world's glaciers - a new approach for the global calculation of center lines |
title_full_unstemmed |
The length of the world's glaciers - a new approach for the global calculation of center lines |
title_sort |
length of the world's glaciers - a new approach for the global calculation of center lines |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/9ee40211-827f-4948-976b-329e41c07104 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1741-2014 https://backend.orbit.dtu.dk/ws/files/126705095/tc_8_1741_2014.pdf |
genre |
East Greenland glacier glacier glacier* glaciers Greenland Alaska |
genre_facet |
East Greenland glacier glacier glacier* glaciers Greenland Alaska |
op_source |
Machguth , H & Huss , M 2014 , ' The length of the world's glaciers - a new approach for the global calculation of center lines ' , Cryosphere , vol. 8 , no. 5 , pp. 1741-1755 . https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1741-2014 |
op_relation |
https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/9ee40211-827f-4948-976b-329e41c07104 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1741-2014 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
1741 |
op_container_end_page |
1755 |
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1799479161591431168 |