Ice distribution in Hornsund fjord, Svalbard from PlanetScope (2018-2023)

This dataset contains maps of land (0), open water (1), thin ice (2) and thick ice (3) in Isbjørnhamna-Hansbukta area, NW Hornsund fjord, Svalbard at 3 m resolution. The maps are based on the PlanetScope archive from 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023. The categories were defined using Blue-Red index (Makhotina et al., 2026; https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.127861) with values > 0.161 representing open water, 0.079-0.161 thin ice and < 0.079 thick ice. The landmask was created using the Norwegian Polar Institute's 2014 land shapefile updated annually to account for glacier front retreat, with a 10 m buffer added to exclude coastal zone. A document containing details on the scenes used and the level of manual editing is provided.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
GCMD keywords
Dataset Center https://pangaea.de/
Maintainer
Dataset PI
  • PI name: Elizabeth Makhotina PI email: mylizpatfoo(at)gmail.com PI Institution: Ecole Jeannine Manuel
  • PI name: Zuzanna Swirad PI email: zswiradfoo(at)igf.edu.pl PI ORCID: 0000-0002-3592-9739 PI Institution: Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences PI Department: Department of Polar and Marine Research
  • PI name: Olga Tutubalina PI email: ovt20foo(at)cam.ac.uk PI Institution: University of Cambridge PI Department: Scott Polar Research Institute
  • PI name: Gareth Rees PI email: wgr2foo(at)cam.ac.uk PI Institution: University of Cambridge PI Department: Scott Polar Research Institute
Dataset Owner
  • Owner name: Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences Owner PIC (Participant Identification Code): 996625337 Owner address: Ksiecia Janusza 64, 01-452 Warszawa, Poland
Licence Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Dataset status Complete
Activity type
  • maps
  • remote sensing measurements
Access constraint Open
Embargo
Dataset modified 2026-07-28
Metadata created 2026-08-03
Quality statement Not quality controlled
Quality Editor
  • Editor name: TBC
Spatial distribution { "coordinates": [ [ [ 15.487554, 77.006787 ], [ 15.884959, 77.006787 ], [ 15.884959, 76.941605 ], [ 15.487554, 76.941605 ], [ 15.487554, 77.006787 ] ] ], "type": "Polygon" }
Region Svalbard, Spitsbergen, Hornsund
Start time 2018-03-23 12:00 CET
End time 2023-06-08 13:00 CEST
Dataset citation Makhotina, E., Swirad, Z.M., Tutubalina, O.V. & Rees, W.G. (2026): Ice distribution in Hornsund fjord, Svalbard from PlanetScope (2018-2023) [dataset]. PANGAEA
Dataset DOI 10.1594/PANGAEA.996238
External resource
  • Resource URL: https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.996238
Publication
Project
  • Project title: Studying glacier/ocean interactions using a natural laboratory of Hornsund fjord, Svalbard Project ID: 2024/54/E/ST10/00174 Project description: The Arctic is warming almost four times faster compared to the global average. Rising temperatures cause rapid (and accelerating) decay of the land-based ice – a main contributor to the sea level rise. The freshwater input from the ice melt will cause further rise in sea levels and vital changes to ecosystems due to the ocean freshening. Predicting the future sociological, economic and environmental impacts of ice loss requires two conditions to be met: (i) mechanisms responsible for the decay of land-based ice are quantified and (ii) the corresponding response of the geosystem is explained; the project aims to answer these needs by investigating critical interplays between the warming ocean and shrinking glaciers. Ocean-driven melt is one of the major drivers of ice loss. However, processes in play at the ice/ocean boundary are poorly represented in numerical models; therefore, a better understanding of glacier frontal ablation is essential for accurate predictions of ice loss. Moreover, frontal ablation di Project homepage: https://projekty.ncn.gov.pl/en/index.php?projekt_id=625484 Project financing institution: National Science Centre, Poland