Glacier Area Outline (GAO) 1988-1997

Abstract

Glacier Area Outline (GAO) for mainland Norway from the period 1988-1997, using Landsat TM/ETM+ satellite images. A semi-automatic band ratio method was applied. All automatically mapped snow and ice polygons were visually inspected using composites of satellite image bands, digital topographic maps and orthophotos where available. The polygons were manually classified as ‘glaciers’, ‘possible snowfields’ or ‘snow’. Manual corrections for debris cover, glacier lake interfaces, clouds or cast shadow were made where necessary. Many smaller polygons which had been classified as possible snowfields due to size, shape or due to uncertainty regarding ice content were not assigned IDs and were therefore not included. This dataset is a contribution to Cryoclim.