PROMICE-2022 ice mask: a high-resolution outline of the Greenland Ice Sheet from August 2022

Abstract. The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is losing mass at an accelerating rate in response to climate change. Its geometry responds to these changes over annual to decadal timescales, therefore making accurate and up-to-date mapping of its extent essential for monitoring ice loss, assessing mass balance, and improving climate and glaciological models. Ice margin outlines serve as critical boundary conditions for different types of modelling exercises, hydrological studies, and assessments of ice sheet dynamics. Here, we present the PROMICE-2022 Ice Mask, a high-resolution outline of the contiguous ice masses of the GrIS and the nunataks in its interior as of late August 2022. The dataset was derived from a true-colour Sentinel-2 mosaic at 10 m spatial resolution, generated using the Sentinel Hub Cloud Processing API to select the most recent valid pixels from August 2022. The mapping process was performed manually and supplemented with high-resolution mosaics from Sentinel-2 and SPOT 6/7 provided by the Danish Agency for Climate Data (KDS), along with recent topographic vector data. We mapped the geodesic perimeter length of the GrIS to 53 060 km and its glacierized area, including floating ice, to 1 725 648 km2 with 19 130 nunataks in its interior. The PROMICE-2022 ice mask captures the GrIS margin with an absolute horizontal accuracy better than 20 m. Its quality and consistency make it well suited for applications in ice sheet modelling, hydrology, glacial geomorphology, and long-term monitoring of ice margin change. The complete dataset is freely available for download at https://doi.org/10.22008/FK2/O8CLRE (Luetzenburg et al., 2025c).

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Publication Details

Journal
Earth system science data
Published
2026-01-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-411-2026
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Cryospheric studies and observations
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
81.28

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article

PROMICE-2022 ice mask: a high-resolution outline of the Greenland Ice Sheet from August 2022

Karin Gleie, Niels J. Korsgaard, Dominik Fahrner, Gregor Luetzenburg et al.
2 citations
Earth system science data
Cryospheric studies and observations
81.28
article

PROMICE-2022 ice mask: a high-resolution outline of the Greenland Ice Sheet from August 2022

Karin Gleie, Niels J. Korsgaard, Dominik Fahrner, Gregor Luetzenburg, Anders Anker Bjørk, Andreas P. Ahlstrøm, Anna Kirk Deichmann, Tobias Socher, Thomas Scharffenberger, Kristian Kjellerup Kjeldsen, Penelope How, Eva Bendix Nielsen, Robert Schjøtt Fausto
article en
2 citations

Abstract

Abstract. The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is losing mass at an accelerating rate in response to climate change. Its geometry responds to these changes over annual to decadal timescales, therefore making accurate and up-to-date mapping of its extent essential for monitoring ice loss, assessing mass balance, and improving climate and glaciological models. Ice margin outlines serve as critical boundary conditions for different types of modelling exercises, hydrological studies, and assessments of ice sheet dynamics. Here, we present the PROMICE-2022 Ice Mask, a high-resolution outline of the contiguous ice masses of the GrIS and the nunataks in its interior as of late August 2022. The dataset was derived from a true-colour Sentinel-2 mosaic at 10 m spatial resolution, generated using the Sentinel Hub Cloud Processing API to select the most recent valid pixels from August 2022. The mapping process was performed manually and supplemented with high-resolution mosaics from Sentinel-2 and SPOT 6/7 provided by the Danish Agency for Climate Data (KDS), along with recent topographic vector data. We mapped the geodesic perimeter length of the GrIS to 53 060 km and its glacierized area, including floating ice, to 1 725 648 km2 with 19 130 nunataks in its interior. The PROMICE-2022 ice mask captures the GrIS margin with an absolute horizontal accuracy better than 20 m. Its quality and consistency make it well suited for applications in ice sheet modelling, hydrology, glacial geomorphology, and long-term monitoring of ice margin change. The complete dataset is freely available for download at https://doi.org/10.22008/FK2/O8CLRE (Luetzenburg et al., 2025c).

Earth system science dataVol. 18(1)
University of Copenhagen (DK), Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (DK)
Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, Nationale Geologiske Undersøgelser for Danmark og Grønland
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Cryospheric studies and observations
81.28
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