We present here the airborne Lidar data was collected over the Thwaites Glacier catchment and adjacent ice shelves during the 2018/19 and 2019/20 field seasons. The data was collected using a Riegl Q240i-80 scanning system mounted in the BAS aerogeophysically equipped twin otter aircraft. It provides a high resolution (0.2 to 0.4 points per m2), and high accuracy (~10 cm vertical) georeferenced and time stamped swath of surface elevation information. Each track is ~600 m wide. Such data provides critical information about how the surface of the Thwaites Glacier system is changing. The Thwaites 2019/20 aerogeophysical survey was carried out as part of the BAS National Capability contribution to the NERC/NSF International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) program, with additional funding for LIDAR data processing from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

This dataset contains the annual ice front position shapefiles of the Thwaites Glacier Ice Tongue between 2000 and 2018 as shown in the Miles et al. (2020) paper. Each shapefile was mapped manually from MODIS imagery in the March of each year. The dataset details the retreat of the ice tongue and transition from a tabular calving regime to a disintegration type calving. This work was funded by NERC grant NE/R000824/1.