Data released under Open Government Licence V3.0:

Please cite as follows: Gerrish, L. (2020). The coastline of Kalaallit Nunaat/ Greenland available as a shapefile and geopackage, covering the main land and islands, with glacier fronts updated as of 2017. (Version 1.0) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/8CECDE06-8474-4B58-A9CB-B820FA4C9429

Methodology:

Dataset compiled primarily from the ''IceBridge BedMachine Greenland, Version 3'': Morlighem, M. et al. 2017. IceBridge BedMachine Greenland, Version 3. Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/2CIX82HUV88Y. Accessed 29/09/2017.

Using Esri ArcGIS 10.4, polygons were extracted from the 'land' mask with 'simplify polygons' selected, so as to slightly smooth the 150x150 m pixel size. Landsat 8 imagery was obtained for 2017 (courtesy of USGS) and the coastline was checked and manually updated against this imagery. Main changes included editing data that was incorrect or missing, and finally updating all major and most minor glacier fronts, where ice had retreated or advanced since the source date of the BedMachine dataset.

Data collection:

Data compiled using the following software: Esri ArcGIS v 10.4, QGIS 2.18.

Data quality:

We cannot comprehensively say that this dataset covers every island or is completely accurate for all sections of the coastline. It is possible to interpret satellite imagery in different ways, especially in snowy images or regions with sea-ice close to the coast, but the dataset was produced to the best available standard available with the creator's knowledge.