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...
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ftethz:oai:www.research-collection.ethz.ch:20.500.11850/90730 2023-08-20T04:06:12+02:00 The length of the world's glaciers – a new approach for the global calculation of center lines Machguth, Horst Huss, Matthias id_orcid:0 000-0002-2377-6923 2014 application/application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/90730 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000090730 en eng Copernicus info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.5194/tc-8-1741-2014 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/000344728900009 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/90730 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000090730 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported The Cryosphere, 8 (5) info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2014 ftethz https://doi.org/20.500.11850/9073010.3929/ethz-b-00009073010.5194/tc-8-1741-2014 2023-07-30T23:50:23Z 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 ~ 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. ISSN:1994-0416 ISSN:1994-0424 Article in Journal/Newspaper East Greenland glacier glacier glacier* glaciers Greenland The Cryosphere Alaska ETH Zürich Research Collection Canada Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
ETH Zürich Research Collection |
op_collection_id |
ftethz |
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 ~ 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. ISSN:1994-0416 ISSN:1994-0424 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Machguth, Horst Huss, Matthias id_orcid:0 000-0002-2377-6923 |
spellingShingle |
Machguth, Horst Huss, Matthias id_orcid:0 000-0002-2377-6923 The length of the world's glaciers – a new approach for the global calculation of center lines |
author_facet |
Machguth, Horst Huss, Matthias id_orcid:0 000-0002-2377-6923 |
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 |
publisher |
Copernicus |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/90730 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000090730 |
geographic |
Canada Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Canada Greenland |
genre |
East Greenland glacier glacier glacier* glaciers Greenland The Cryosphere Alaska |
genre_facet |
East Greenland glacier glacier glacier* glaciers Greenland The Cryosphere Alaska |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, 8 (5) |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.5194/tc-8-1741-2014 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/000344728900009 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/90730 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000090730 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.11850/9073010.3929/ethz-b-00009073010.5194/tc-8-1741-2014 |
_version_ |
1774717140398505984 |