![]() ![]() There are an estimated 160 000 glaciers on Earth (Meier and Bahr, 1996). The project described in this paper, Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS), is meant to fit into these programs and extend existing glacier inventories. Since then, glaciers have been made part of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) and the Global Hierarchical Observing Strategy (GHOST), programs established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) (Haeberli, 2004). The World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) was established in 1986 for the collection of standardized glacier observations from around the world. Several international programs are focused on monitoring glacier change. Changes in climate therefore induce changes in glaciers, making them sensitive and easily observed indicators of climate change (Haeberli, 2004). Glaciers, bodies of ice that persist for years, assume a size and flow rate that are in balance with local climate. Results show marked changes in that system over the last 30 years, but also point out the need for establishing clear protocols for glacier monitoring from remote-sensing data. ![]() We present an example analysis of change in Cordillera Blanca glaciers, as determined by comparing data in the GLIMS Glacier Database to historical data. The glacier and ASTER footprint layers may be queried for scalar attribute data, such as analyst name and date of contribution for glacier data, and acquisition time and browse imagery for the ASTER footprint layer. Map layers include glacier outlines, footprints of ASTER satellite optical images acquired over glaciers, and Regional Center information. There, users can browse custom maps, display various data layers, query information within the GLIMS database, and download query results in different GIS-compatible formats. The GLIMS Glacier Database is accessible on the World Wide Web at “ ”. The WMS, an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)-compliant web interface, makes GLIMS glacier data available to other data servers. Data received by the GLIMS team at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado are ingested into a spatially-enabled database (PostGIS) and made available via a website featuring an interactive map, and a Web-Mapping Service (WMS). Each institution (called a Regional Center, or RC) oversees the analysis of satellite imagery for a particular region containing glacier ice. 1909 Pedersen Glacier: From the Glacier Photograph Collection.The Global Land Ice Measurement from Space (GLIMS) project is a cooperative effort of over sixty institutions world-wide with the goal of inventorying a majority of the world's estimated 160 000 glaciers. Flip through the gallery below to see how things have changed over time. There are special collections of glacier photography, including a large collection of photographs of glaciers taken by astronauts, but one of the more interesting collections is their Repeat Photography of Glaciers collection, which features pictures of glaciers from the same vantage point at different points in time. In addition to the GLIMS data, the National Snow and Ice Data Center also keeps a photography database of glaciers. Raup says a new web interface is in the works and will hopefully be available sometime next year. Kargel wants to change that, envisioning a time when a farmer in British Columbia can look up information on glacial meltwater in the area, or when an urban planner in Nepal can examine potential hazards of glacial flooding. You can access the GLIMS database online now, but getting information that you want can be complicated for non-glaciologists. The researchers are also working hard to make their data more accessible to the public. ![]()
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