TY  - Data
T1  - A dataset of 1977 Pamir Glacier Inventory (PGI 1977)
A1  - li zhi jie
A1  - Wang Ninglian
A1  - Majid Gulayozov
DO  - 10.12072/ncdc.db7824.2026
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026-10-08
PB  - National Cryosphere Desert Data Center
AB  - The Pamir Plateau is known as the "Water Tower of Central Asia," with its glacial meltwater sustaining a population of over 50 million people across the Aral Sea basin and southern Xinjiang. However, the early Pamir glacier inventories are generally constrained by limited temporal representativeness, insufficiently precise digitization, and inconsistent delineation criteria, all of which introduce substantial uncertainty into glacier change research. Using Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) imagery as the primary data source, supplemented by high-resolution Keyhole (KH-9) imagery and pre-existing glacier inventory datasets, this study generated the 1977 Pamir Glacier Inventory (PGI 1977) dataset. For clean glacier areas, glacier outlines were manually delineated based on color and texture differences between ice/snow/firn and surrounding rocky terrain or soils observed in Landsat MSS imagery, which stem from their divergent thermodynamic properties. For debris-covered areas, glacier outlines were delineated by integrating thermokarst, hydrological, and topographic features captured in both Landsat MSS and KH-9 imagery. Accuracy of the PGI 1977 was systematically improved through a series of quality control procedures: rigorous image screening, inheritance of established inventory frameworks, integration of high-resolution KH-9 imagery, and consistent manual delineation by a single interpreter. The inventory results indicate that 13575 glaciers were distributed across the Pamir in 1977, covering a total area of 11242.26 ± 595.85 km². Compared with other contemporaneous glacier inventories, PGI 1977 shows markedly better temporal representativeness and improved glacier-outline accuracy, providing a reliable baseline reference for long-term glacier change research in the Pamir.
DB  - NCDC
UR  - https://www.ncdc.ac.cn/portal/metadata/e57ecb88-5df4-48ca-9b86-c14072f86ae2
ER  -