An inventory of Norway's glaciers and ice-marginal lakes from 2018–19 Sentinel-2 data

2022/03/31 by Liss M. Andreassen, T. Nagy, Bjarne Kjøllmoen +1 · 1 voice
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Cryospheric studies and observations #Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics #Climate change and permafrost

paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/jog.2022.20

openalex publication_date 2022/03/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

Abstract We used Sentinel-2 satellite imagery at 10 m resolution to map the extent of Norway's glaciers and ice-marginal lakes over 2018–19. We applied a standardized semi-automated band ratio method to derive glacier outlines and ice-marginal lakes. To optimise the results, we manually edited the ice-lake interfaces, debris, snow and parts of the glaciers situated under shadow. We compared our Sentinel-2 derived outlines with very high-resolution aerial orthophotos and Pléiades satellite orthoimages. Glaciers larger than 0.3 km 2 have area differences within 7%, whereas values are larger for smaller glaciers. The orthophotos and orthoimages provide more details and a higher mapping accuracy for individual glaciers, but require manual digitisation, have smaller spatial and temporal coverage and can have adverse snow conditions. We found a total glacier area of 2328 ± 70 km 2 of which the ten largest glaciers accounted for 52%. The glacier area decreased 15% since the previous inventory (Landsat data from 1999 to 2006), the reduction being largest in northern Norway (22%) compared to southern Norway (10%). We detected more than 2000 previously undetected smaller glaciers and ice patches (covering 37 km 2 ) and 360 new ice-marginal lakes.

Citations

• The impact of pro‐glacial lakes on downstream sediment delivery in Norway
• Glacier change (1958–1998) in the North Cascades National Park Complex, Washington, USA
• The Randolph Glacier Inventory: a globally complete inventory of glaciers
• On the accuracy of glacier outlines derived from remote-sensing data
• Identifying and mapping very small (<0.5 km2) mountain glaciers on coarse to high-resolution imagery
• Glacier change in Norway since the 1960s – an overview of mass balance, area, length and surface elevation changes
• Rapid worldwide growth of glacial lakes since 1990
• Increasing risk of glacial lake outburst floods from future Third Pole deglaciation

Discussions

• High-resolution satellite imagery allowed Andreassen et al. (2022) (doi.org/10.1017/jog.2022.20) to map and count Norwegian glaciers more precisely. They estimate the current glacier area to be 2328 ± [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]