The dataset contains all individual glacial storage (unit: km3) over the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in 1970s and 2000s. It is sourced from the resultant data of the paper entitled "Consolidating the Randolph Glacier Inventory and the Glacier Inventory of China over the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and Investigating Glacier Changes Since the mid-20th Century". The first draft of this paper has been completed and is planned to be submitted to Earth System Science Data journal. The baseline glacier inventories in 1970s and 2000s are the Randolph Glacier Inventory 4.0 dataset, and the Glacier Inventory of China, respectively. Based on the individual glacial boundaries extracted from the above-mentioned two datasets, the grid-based bedrock elevation dataset (https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/global.html, DOI: 10.7289/v5c8276m), and the glacier surface elevation obtained by a slope-dependent method, the individual glacier volumes in 1970s and 2000s are then calculated. In addition, the calculated results of individual glacier volumes in this study have been compared and verified with the existent results of several glacier volumes, relevant remote sensing datasets, and the global glacier thickness dataset based on the average of multiple glacier model outputs (https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/handle/20.500.11850/315707, doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000315707), and the errors in the calculations have also been quantified (the error rates of all mountains are within 10%). The established dataset in this study is expected to provide the data basis for the future regional water resources estimation and glacier ablation-involved researches. Moreover, the acquisition of the data also provides a new idea for the future glacier storage estimation.

File naming and required software

An excel file (ESSD_DATA.xlsx) and Grid files (the Grid files as QZG_RGI_4.0, QZG_GIC-Ⅱ include a dbf file, a prj file, a sbn file, a sbx file, a sbx file, a shp file, a shp.xml file, and a shx file). In the excel file, the sheet named RGI 4.0 contains the glacier records over the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in 1970s, and the other sheet named GIC-Ⅱ contains each glacier record in 2000s, in which every row represents a glacier record, and a row is a kind of glacier property including the glacier code, the date of data source (it is missing in several glaciers), the located mountain, glacier area (km2), central longitude and latitude, maximum elevation (m), minimum elevation, median elevation (m), slope, and aspect, ice storage (km3). The Grid files include a dbf file, a prj file, a sbn file, a sbx file, a shp file, a shp.xml file, a shx file, in which the shp file including the above-mentioned properties of glaciers as well can be opened as a polygon layer by ArcGIS, from which the glacier distribution can be seen. In a word, the last column of the sheet named RGI 4.0 and GIC-Ⅱ in the excel file, the last column of the dbf file in the Grid files are the main data (glacier volume). Moreover, the files named "Validation_Notes.xlsx" and "ESSD_error.xlsx" are validation file and error rate file, respectively.

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Cite as:

Liu, X. (2020). Glacier volume dataset of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in 1970s and 2000s. A Big Earth Data Platform for Three Poles, DOI: 10.11888/Glacio.tpdc.270390. CSTR: 18406.11.Glacio.tpdc.270390. (Download the reference： RIS | Bibtex )

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References literature

1.Hiroko B., Rodell M. (2016). NASA/GSFC/HSL: GLDAS Catchment Land Surface Model L4 daily 0.25×0.25 degree V 2.0, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). https://doi.org/10.5067/LYHA9088MFWQ. (View Details )

2.Farinotti, D., Huss, M., Fürst, J. J., Landmann, J., Machguth, H., Maussion, F., & Pandit, A. (2019). A consensus estimate for the ice thickness distribution of all glaciers on Earth. Nature Geoscience, 12, 168-173. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0300-3. (View Details )

3.Soller D. R., Garrity C. P. (2018). Map of bedrock topography, sheet 2 in Quaternary sediment thickness and bedrock topography of the glaciated United States east of the Rocky Mountains: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3392, 2 sheets, scale 1: 5,000,000. https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3392. (View Details )

4.RGI Consortium. (2014). Randolph Glacier Inventory – A Dataset of Global Glacier Outlines: Version 4.0: Technical Report, Global Land Ice Measurements from Space, Colorado, USA. Digital Media. https://doi.org/10.7265/N5-RGI-40. (View Details )

5.WGMS. 2016. Glacier Thickness Database 2.0. World Glacier Monitoring Service, Zurich, Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.5904/wgms-glathida-2016-07. http://dx.doi.org/10.5904/wgms-glathida-2016-07 (doi:10.5904/wgms-glathida-2016-07) (View Details )

Support Program

National Natural Science of China (No:91647202)

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