Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/HMA_DTE
HMA_DTE·v1·dataset

How much rocky debris covers glaciers

Global Glacier Debris Thickness Estimates and Sub-Debris Melt Factors V001
cryosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 4 XMLGeoTIFFCSVASCII
In plain English

What it measures. Estimates of how thick the layer of rocky debris is on top of debris-covered glaciers around the world, plus how much that debris speeds up or slows down the ice melting beneath it.

How it's made. Calculated for nearly every debris-covered glacier (outside the ice sheets) by combining Landsat-8 satellite observations with melt and surface-temperature modeling.

How & where you'd use it. Improving estimates of how fast glaciers are melting and contributing to water supplies and sea-level rise, since debris cover strongly changes how ice behaves.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › GLACIERS › DEBRIS THICKNESSCRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › GLACIERS › SUB-DEBRIS MELT ENHANCEMENT

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-01-01 → 2018-12-31
  • Measured byLANDSAT-8 (OLI) · MODELS (NOT APPLICABLE)
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • Spatial extent-180, -56, 180, 84
  • FormatsXML, GeoTIFF, CSV, ASCII
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Measure sea ice, snow cover and glaciers
  • Watch ice-sheet elevation change
  • Track freeze/thaw and permafrost
Official description

This data set includes spatially distributed estimates of the debris thickness and sub-debris melt enhancement factors for every debris-covered glacier in the Randolph Glacier Inventory Version 6, excluding the ice sheets and Antarctic Periphery. The debris thickness estimates are derived using a novel approach that uses a combination of sub-debris melt inversion and surface temperature inversion methods. The sub-debris melt enhancement factors are estimated from the debris thickness using debris thickness-melt curves normalized by estimates of the clean-ice melt.

Get the data

hma_dte_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="HMA_DTE",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from NSIDC_CPRD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.