A systematically-derived global glacier map derived from MODIS

A wealth of glacier data are contained in the archives of both the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), Zurich, Switzerland, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Boulder, USA. Types of data range from detailed, high resolution digital glacier outlines, to carefully compiled time series of terminus fluctuation and mass balance measurements, to glacier photograph pairs showing change through time. One fundamental missing component of a world glacier inventory is simply a single, systematically-derived base map of the world’s glaciers, at any scale. The MODICE project has developed a prototype example of such a consistently-derived base map, using 500 m MODIS data. The MODICE algorithm identifies surfaces with persistent snow and ice, derived from MODIS Snow-covered Area and Grain-Size Albedo (MODSCAG) subpixel snow fraction, during the annual period that includes the seasonal minimum snow cover. We describe the persistence algorithm approach that accounts for problems of transient snow or clouds that may incorrectly be identified as ice in any given scene. We demonstrate the algorithm results for the Himalayan Plateau (comprising 10 MODIS tiles) for the autumns of 2001 and 2002. We are validating the MODICE persistent ice map by comparing to areas of glaciers identified by Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS). Our presentation includes standard image classification statistics as metrics of the accuracy of the MODICE approach.