Missing glaciers in Greenland

[willkochtitzky]

RGI version
RGI v7.0

Describe the issue
There is a small glacier that should be included in RGI at 81.929°N, 27.270°W and another at 77.626°N, 67.376°W

Expected outcome
Add two glacier to RGI in Greenland

Screenshots

Suggested solution
Add glaciers to RGI

Additional context
N/A

[ezwelty]

These are both missing from GLIMS so technically an upstream GLIMS issue.

It's rather embarrassing really that these are both on OpenStreetMap... It would probably be wise to intersect RGI 7 with all OpenStreetMap glaciers and check any OpenStreetMap outlines that don't intersect RGI 7. A cursory look around these areas also suggests that some outlines in RGI 7 that are not present in OpenStreetMap are likely snow patches (e.g. 81.86166753, -26.87777792).

[fmaussion]

These are both missing from GLIMS so technically an upstream GLIMS issue.

Correct, but I think its good to have these issues here as well for everyone to see.

It's rather embarrassing really that these are both on OpenStreetMap

That's new! Is there an army of OSM glacier mapping geeks we don't know about and could harness as well? 🤔

[ezwelty]

That's new! Is there an army of OSM glacier mapping geeks we don't know about and could harness as well? 🤔

I'm not involved with the OSM community, but probably:

https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/how-do-you-tag-an-area-of-snow-ice/117832
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:natural%3Dglacier

I'm not suggesting that the outlines be used directly, especially because many don't have a tags.source.date, but at least as guidance for finding glaciers that have been missed by the pros.

For your viewing pleasure, here are all the outlines in OSM as of 2025-09-29 as a GeoParquet:
https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/36d6a322-024b-4c9c-b37d-1d17d0907e6f (link valid until 2025-10-28)

Of the 111504 geometries, 22933 do not overlap RGI 7. Lots are in Greenland and Antarctica because of RGI 7's omission of ice sheet connected glaciers. Many are noise. But there are also many good finds. All relatively small. Here are those I found that were quick to confirm from Google Satellite, Bing VirtualEarth, or ESRI World Imagery Wayback:

• 60.38523727, -44.53771304
• 60.35812564, -44.32151425
• 60.28988249, -44.27905157
• 67.22188307, -53.27935899
• 67.18263292, -52.52071286
• 67.19898103, -52.80833803
• 69.60953232, -53.63771946
• 69.61419762, -53.66536244
• 70.16016030, -54.12428960
• 76.81184703, -84.02815438
• 77.07114147, -83.11286088
• 76.45517936, -80.47579771
• 76.51201654, -80.45687763
• 76.49987558, -80.31660488
• 82.70494504, -80.31810221
• 82.62540854, -80.04203334
• 82.61240703, -80.58159353
• 82.60992252, -80.40268204
• 82.63763558, -77.82862950
• 82.63217057, -77.91146629
• 82.70310494, -77.48465873
• 82.91306691, -77.89914981
• 82.92028963, -74.44420775
• 82.88153302, -73.12708135
• 82.90940068, -72.90619861
• 78.21816859, 16.06576183
• 68.98276588, 20.17353117
• 69.10497757, 19.96302606
• 67.28621612, 16.40199641
• 67.27392633, 16.38147918
• 67.26789776, 16.35543335
• 67.25550358, 16.35567907
• 66.08473533, -18.01449214
• 65.95383333, -18.72253627
• 65.89976967, -19.01162421
• 65.51519205, -18.71200506
• 63.62038117, -19.42828833
• 79.09694182, 101.43965871
• 61.88350513, -149.07567925
• 60.69628562, -144.81386942
• 57.41183037, -131.15950602
• 57.25517636, -131.11634267
• 57.21841131, -131.10138475
• 57.20086669, -131.22601618
• 56.63030528, -131.19446863
• 56.59159999, -131.25375130
• 50.90579582, -124.28923392
• 50.92687842, -124.31949914
• 50.93094861, -124.33262187
• 50.93609270, -124.29999932
• 50.94345701, -124.30452970
• 50.93268595, -124.25894182
• 50.92637506, -124.24846820
• 50.92234804, -124.19242975
• 50.96176111, -124.00276054
• 50.64188783, -124.28963704
• 51.67181084, -116.11633645
• 51.46180741, -115.62339308
• 51.35361975, -115.85196978
• 51.36310164, -115.81858704
• 51.29231300, -115.77226970
• 50.57333856, -115.16164787

Including some that are in GLIMS but not in RGI 7:

• 79.55248673, 95.66791273
• 78.79204646, 104.99939836
• 78.74852570, 105.12078174
• 80.57802105, 54.20843914
• 80.29060186, 52.67907611
• 63.39757714, -149.86307407
• 48.00118946, -121.37474852

Some of these missing glaciers are hiding in plain sight – in places with very good imagery and/or present on national maps, sometimes even with names (e.g. https://minkarta.lantmateriet.se/plats/3006/v2.0/?e=559650&n=7462791&z=9&mapprofile=karta&layers=%5B%5B%223%22%5D%2C%5B%221%22%5D%5D). I suppose future inventories would be well served by having OSM, national inventories, etc loaded in the GIS as reference while producing and checking outlines.

I guess if/when an RGI2020 is ever made, a lot of these missing glaciers will be detected in the better modern imagery, helping to reveal what was missed in RGI2000.

[willkochtitzky]

Great work Ethan! This would be excellent and explore and update in the next RGI

[ezwelty]

Just found another one – a mass balance glacier no less! Ram River Glacier in Canada
51.83917134, -116.1928102
https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/eccc/En36-502-70-eng.pdf

[fidelsteiner]

at least in HMA the OSM community is very strong (we work with them on/off) and I have also relied on it now when looking for missing glacier names in RGI. provides many instances of potential updates. would likely be easy to have them exchange, they have asked us previously 'what should we focus on for the cryosphere', then I hadn't thought about outlines ...

[ezwelty]

at least in HMA the OSM community is very strong (we work with them on/off) and I have also relied on it now when looking for missing glacier names in RGI. provides many instances of potential updates. would likely be easy to have them exchange, they have asked us previously 'what should we focus on for the cryosphere', then I hadn't thought about outlines ...

Cool that you have that connection! One idea that comes to mind is to transfer glacier names and/or numbers from the USSR glacier catalogue. Might also identify missing glacier outlines in the process.

The folks at Библиотека по гляциологии ИГРАН [IGRAN Glaciology Library] have digitized nearly the entire thing: https://sites.google.com/view/glaciobiblio/каталоги-ледников/каталог-ледников-ссср

Anyway, guess we're wandering pretty far now from @willkochtitzky's missing Greenlandic glacier 😜

[ezwelty]

Another missing mass balance (barely) glacier: Grand Union Glacier, Alaska
65.01371075, -165.34530288
https://doi.org/10.1080/00040851.1998.12002887