Published 2025 | Version v2
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GloGEM CMIP6 global glacier projections

Description

The files contain the glacier evolution as modelled with the Global Glacier Evolution Model (GloGEM; Huss and Hock, 2015) under the CMIP6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6) climate models. For details about the simulations, refer to Zekollari et al. (2024), where the model setup and results are described in detail. Two variables are available: glacier volume and glacier area. The dataset is provided at two spatial aggregation levels:

  • Regional scale: for each of the 19 glacier regions as defined in RGI v6.0.
  • Glacier-specific scale: for each individual glacier included in the RGI v6.0.

At the regional scale, each file (.csv) contains the temporal evolution of glacier Volume [km³] or Area [km²] under different Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), where, for example, ssp119.csv corresponds to SSP1-1.9, ssp126.csv to SSP1-2.6, etc.

At the glacier-specific scale, data are provided in NetCDF format (.nc) following the same structure. Each file contains the time evolution of glacier volume and area for all glaciers within the respective RGI region, under the same set of SSP scenarios.

If you use these data, please cite both:

  • The ZENODO dataset, and
  • The corresponding publication: Zekollari et al. (2024)

Notes and remarks

  • In these GloGEM simulations, every glacier is individually calibrated to match the observed mass changes from Hugonnet et al. (2021).
  • Until 2020, the glacier evolution forcing is based on ERA5. From 2020 onwards, the forcing is derived from the respective climate models. Very small differences in simulated glacier evolution before 2020 may occur among models, due to randomly generated sub-monthly air temperature variability used to improve monthly positive degree day estimates.
  • In Zekollari et al. (2024), results are shown for SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5 (for 12 climate models). The data on ZENODO also include simulations for SSP1-1.9, which are not described in the manuscript due to the smaller climate model ensemble (n=3).
  • For SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5, the considered climate models are the same as in Rounce et al. (2023).
  • The glacier evolution was modelled using the same climate model forcing as OGGM v1.6.1. The OGGM v1.6.1 projections are available from Schuster et al. (2023) and are also described in Zekollari et al. (2024).

References

Hugonnet, R., McNabb, R., Berthier, E., Menounos, B., Nuth, C., Girod, L., Farinotti, D., Huss, M., Dussaillant, I., Brun, F., and Kääb, A.: Accelerated global glacier mass loss in the early twenty-first century, Nature, 592, 726–731, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03436-z, 2021.

Huss, M. and Hock, R.: A new model for global glacier change and sea-level rise, Frontiers in Earth Science, 3, 54, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2015.00054, 2015.

RGI Consortium: Randolph Glacier Inventory – A Dataset of Global Glacier Outlines: Version 6.0: Technical Report, Global Land Ice Measurements from Space, Colorado, USA. Digital Media, , https://doi.org/10.7265/N5-RGI-60, 2017.

Rounce, D. R., Hock, R., Maussion, F., Hugonnet, R., Kochtitzky, W., Huss, M., Berthier, E., Brinkerhoff, D., Compagno, L., Copland, L., Farinotti, D., Menounos, B., and McNabb, R. W.: Global glacier change in the 21st century: Every increase in temperature matters, Science, 379, 78–83, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abo1324, 2023.

Schuster, L., Schmitt, P., Vlug, A., and Maussion, F.: OGGM/oggm-standard-projections-csv-files: v1.0 (v1.0), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8286065, 2023.

Zekollari, H., Huss, M., Schuster, L., Maussion, F., Rounce, D. R., Aguayo, R., Champollion, N., Compagno, L., Hugonnet, R., Marzeion, B., Mojtabavi, S., and Farinotti, D.: Twenty-first century global glacier evolution under CMIP6 scenarios and the role of glacier-specific observations, The Cryosphere, 18, 5045-5066, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5045-2024, 2024.

Files

GloGEM_CMIP6_global_glacier_projections_glacier-specific-output.zip