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Full catalog/HMA2_DCG_SGL
HMA2_DCG_SGL·v1·dataset

Meltwater lakes on debris-covered glaciers, 1988-2023 (High Mountain Asia)

High Mountain Asia Supraglacial Lake Extents on Debris Covered Glaciers, 1988-2023 V001
cryosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 3 Shapefile
In plain English

What it measures. The extent of meltwater lakes sitting on top of debris-covered glaciers, mapped across 769 of the largest such glaciers in High Mountain Asia from 1988 to 2023.

How it's made. Generated by automatically processing 30 m Landsat imagery to outline the lakes, provided at varying time intervals across the record.

How & where you'd use it. Helps researchers track how meltwater lakes on glaciers are changing over decades, relevant to glacier health and downstream flood hazards.

What's measured

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

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1988-01-01 → 2023-12-31
  • Measured byLANDSAT-5 (MSS) · LANDSAT-7 (ETM+) · LANDSAT-8 (OLI) · LANDSAT-9 (OLI-2)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent70.03, 22.57, 101.99, 42.45
  • 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 identifies the extent of supraglacial lakes (SGLs) from 1988 to 2023 on 769 of the largest debris-covered glaciers in the High Mountain Asia region. SGLs were generated via automated processing of 30 m Landsat imagery and are provided at 1-year intervals from 2004-2023, at 2-year intervals from 1992-2003, and as a single 4-year interval from 1988-1991.

Get the data

hma2_dcg_sgl_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="HMA2_DCG_SGL",
    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.