Greenland ice thickness

Day 11 of 30DayMapChallenge. Arctic
R
spatial
datavisualization
30DayMapChallenge
Author

Michaël

Published

2024-11-11

Modified

2024-11-18

A photo of Meltwater in crevasses in Greenland

Meltwater in crevasses in Greenland – CC-BY-NC by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

Day 11 of 30DayMapChallenge: « Arctic » (previously).

We’ll use the Greenland 5 km DEM, Ice Thickness, and Bedrock Elevation Grids (J. Bamber 2001) from J. L. Bamber, Layberry, and Gogineni (2001) and Layberry and Bamber (2001). Download here (after registration).

Data

The data needs some wrangling as the format is not straightforward: it’s a wrapped fixed width ASCII file (check the user guide). We need to make one row out of every 31 lines of the file, reverse the order of the lines and give the correct projection and extent.

library(terra)
library(readr)
library(dplyr)
library(tidyr)

thick <- read_fwf("thick_5km_corrected",
                  guess_max = 1e4) |> 
  mutate(row = ceiling(row_number() / 31)) |> 
  group_by(row) |> 
  group_modify(~ as_tibble(as.vector(t(as.matrix(.x))))) |> 
  ungroup() |> 
  mutate(name = rep(paste0("x", 1:310), 561)) |> 
  drop_na(value) |> 
  pivot_wider(values_from = value,
              names_from = name) |>
  arrange(desc(row)) |> 
  select(-row) |> 
  as.matrix() |> 
  rast(crs = "+proj=stere +lat_0=90 +lat_ts=71 +lon_0=-39 +x_0=0 +y_0=0 +datum=WGS84 +units=m +no_defs +type=crs") 

ext(thick) <- c(-800000, 700000, -3400000, -600000)

Map

Here is the raw map in a polar stereographic projection:

thick |> 
  plot(main = "Greenland Ice thickness",
       col = map.pal("magma"))
Map of Greenland Ice thickness in a polar stereographic projection
Figure 1: Greenland Ice thickness in a polar stereographic projection. data: Bamber J., 2021. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center

And on an interactive map after reprojection:

library(leaflet)

# native resolution is 5 km, so at 66° N it's about 0.1 degree
# -75 - -10 = 65 ; 65 / 0.1 = 650 pixels wide
thick_wgs84 <- thick |>
  project(rast(nrows = 250, ncols = 650, 
               xmin = -75, xmax = -10, 
               ymin = 60, ymax = 85,
               crs = "EPSG:4326")) |> 
  subst(x = _, 0, NA)

range_m <- c(0, max(values(thick_wgs84), na.rm = TRUE))
pal <- colorNumeric("magma", domain = range_m, na.color = "#ffffff00")
# fix the legend order:
pal_rev <- colorNumeric("magma", domain = range_m, na.color = "#ffffff00", reverse = TRUE)

leaflet() |> 
  addTiles() |> 
  addRasterImage(thick_wgs84, 
                 colors = pal,
                 opacity = 0.5,
                 attribution = "Bamber, 2021 (NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center)") |> 
  addLegend(pal = pal_rev,
            title = "Greenland<br />Ice thickness (m)",
            values = range_m,
            labFormat = labelFormat(transform = function(x) sort(x + 500, decreasing = TRUE)))
Figure 2: Greenland Ice thickness

References

Bamber, J. L., R. L. Layberry, and S. P. Gogineni. 2001. “A New Ice Thickness and Bed Data Set for the Greenland Ice Sheet: 1. Measurement, Data Reduction, and Errors.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 106 (D24): 33773–80. https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JD900054.
Bamber, Jonathan. 2001. “Greenland 5 Km DEM, Ice Thickness, and Bedrock Elevation Grids, Version 1.” NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/01A10Z9BM7KP.
Layberry, R. L., and J. L. Bamber. 2001. “A New Ice Thickness and Bed Data Set for the Greenland Ice Sheet: 2. Relationship Between Dynamics and Basal Topography.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 106 (D24): 33781–88. https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JD900053.