GLIMS Project Provides Global View of Glacier Changes

Changes in glaciers can have widespread impact, affecting global climate and local water supplies, or even causing local flooding. As part of the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) project, scientists have been creating a database to track changes in the glaciers around the world - approximately 160,000 of them. Dozens of scientists from 24 different countries collect and analyze high-resolution satellite imagery of their region and provide the data to a Coordination Center, which inputs these data into the GLIMS database. Space-based assets such as the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) provide vast amounts of raw data, relatively cost-effectively. Currently, the GLIMS project is still in it's early years, so data only cover a subset of Earth's glaciers.

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