Glacier Boundary and Ice Thickness Dataset (2023) for Southern Spitsbergen Derived Using the ICEBED Tool

This dataset provides glacier boundary and ice thickness information at 30 m spatial resolution for the year 2023, covering 242 glaciers located in southern Spitsbergen, Svalbard.Glacier boundaries were manually delineated for 2023 using pan-sharpened Landsat OLI imagery, employing multiple false-color composite combinations to enhance glacier identification. The outlines were further cross-validated using the Google Earth platform. The glacier inventory used for delineation is explicitly referenced, ensuring transparency and reproducibility. This approach ensures that the glacier boundaries are representative of conditions in 2023 and are contemporaneous with the elevation data used for ice-thickness estimation.Out of the 242 glaciers, ice thickness was estimated for 132 glaciers, for which suitable 2023 DEM coverage was available. Ice thickness estimation was performed using the ICEBED (ICe volumE and Bedtopography Estimation from DEM) tool, which implements the shear-stress-based GlabTop2_IITB model.The ice thickness dataset was generated using time-consistent inputs to minimize temporal mismatches between glacier outlines, elevation data, and the modeling framework—an issue that commonly affects earlier large-scale glacier thickness assessments. The ICEBED tool utilizes 2023 ArcticDEM Strip data at 30 m spatial resolution, together with glacier masks and surface slope, to derive spatially distributed ice thickness fields.Glacier-specific shape factors were computed following the established method of Ramsankaran et al. (2018), and the final ice thickness estimates were selected based on the closest match to the calculated glacier-specific shape factor.The resulting dataset provides spatially detailed glacier thickness and volume information for southern Spitsbergen in 2023. It is suitable for a wide range of applications, including glacier volume estimation, cryospheric change analysis, glaciological and hydrological modelling, sea-level rise assessment, and glacier-related hazard studies.