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Full catalog/HMA_GLI
HMA_GLI·v1·dataset

Map of glacier lakes across High Mountain Asia

High Mountain Asia Near-Global Multi-Decadal Glacial Lake Inventory V001
cryosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 4 Shapefile
In plain English

What it measures. Outlines (polygons) showing where glacial lakes sit across the High Mountain Asia region, and how their extent changed over time.

How it's made. Compiled from Landsat satellite imagery (Landsat 4 through 8), averaged across five multi-year periods between 1990 and 2018.

How & where you'd use it. Helps track the growth of glacial lakes, which matters for flood risk from sudden lake outbursts and for understanding glacier change in the region.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › GLACIERS › GLACIAL LAKE EXTENT

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1990-01-01 → 2018-12-31
  • Measured byLANDSAT-4 (MSS, TM) · LANDSAT-5 (MSS, TM) · LANDSAT-7 (ETM+) · LANDSAT-8 (OLI, TIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • Spatial extent-180, -55.4, 180, 82.6
  • FormatsShapefile
  • 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 contains polygons of glacial lake extent on a near-global scale, averaged over five multi-year periods between 1990 and 2018.

Get the data

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="HMA_GLI",
    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.