Supraglacial debris thickness measurements from excavation pits at Suldenferner

This repository contains data on debris thickness measured by excavating through the debris to the ice underneath. Data were collected in three separate field campaigns on Suldenferner/Ghiacciaio de Solda, a small glacier in the Italian Alps, descending from Ortler. GLIMS ID: G010571E46495N. RGI ID: RGI60-11.01604.

The files are as follows:

• Overview map of the locations of the pits excavated in each year
  • SDF_hd_pits_locations.png
  • Glacier outline from 2013 (Galos et al., 2015) 
  • Overlain on googlemaps basemap of 2020
  • Longitude and latitude in all data are in WGS 84 UTM 32N
• Excavations in 2014
  • SDF_hd_2014.csv
  • n = 15
  • hd = 1 should be interpreted as dz > 0.6m
• Excavations in 2015
  • SDF_hd_2015.csv
  • n = 90
  • hd = 1 should be interpreted as dz > 0.8m
• Excavations in 2018
  • SDF_hd_2018.csv
  • n = 290
  • hd = 1 should be interpreted as dz > 0.4m
  • this dataset also contains additional data on % debris cover at sampled site

The methodology was as follows:

• Latitude and longitude were recorded with a handheld Garmin GPS (horizontal accuracy recorded in 2015 was between 1-7m, with an average accuracy of +/- 3m)
• Pits were excavated with a shovel or pick until the ice was reached
• The debris thickness to the ice was measured as the distance to the ice from a horizontal reference placed on the unmodified surrounding surface bridging the excavation, with the reference in at least 2 orientations.
• Data is reported as the average of the measurements to the nearest 0.01m

Thanks are due to the Gutgsell family at the Hintergrathütte for continued support of our research activities. Permission to work on Suldenferner is granted by Stelvio National Park. This research was funded by the Austrian Science Fund Grant numbers V309, P28521, and supported by a University of Cambridge undergraduate travel grant. The 2014 data was collected by Lindsey Nicholson and Anna Wirbel. The 2015 data was collected by Lindsey Nicholson, Anna Wirbel, Lukas Hammerer, Irmgard Juen. The 2018 data was collected by Karla Boxall and Naomi Lefroy.