Calving Front Dataset for Marine-Terminating Glaciers in Svalbard 1985-2023

Svalbard has experienced increased climate variability as a result of global warming, leading to significant mass loss in its marine-terminating glaciers over recent decades. Nevertheless, the mechanisms driving this mass loss remain less understood, primarily due to a limited understanding of calving dynamics. Here we present a new high-resolution calving front dataset of 149 marine-terminating glaciers in Svalbard, comprising 124919 glacier calving front positions during the period of 1985-2023. This dataset was generated using a novel automated deep learning framework and multiple optical and SAR satellite images from Landsat, Terra-ASTER, Sentinel-2, and Sentinel-1 satellite missions.

The dataset comprises 149 folders, each representing a distinct glacier. Each glacier folder contains the following five different files:

• a shapefile recording all the terminus traces of this glacier mapped in our study under the projection EPSG:3995;
• a shapefile containing the glacier centreline used in measuring the calving front migrations under the projection EPSG:3995;
• a .CSV file recording the glacier calving front change time series along the centreline in relation to the earliest time stamp;
• a .PNG file showing the geolocation of this glacier and its calving front traces;
• a .PNG file showing the calving front change time series along the glacier centreline.

Calving Front Trace Shapefile Feature Attribute Table