Rock glacier velocity inventory for the Northern Tien Shan, derived from Sentinel-2 imagery over the period 2016-2023 (dataset)

Inventory of rock glaciers for the Northern Tien Shan region, covering 672 rock glaciers. The GIS dataset is comprised of an inventory of the rock glacier outlines in shapefile format, a velocity magnitude raster and a velocity vector shapefile. All files and coordinates are in EPSG:32643, WGS 84 / UTM zone 43N.

Rock glacier velocities were measured using optical feature tracking on pairs of Sentinel-2 images collected in late summer in 2016 and 2023. Rock glacier outlines were manually delineated and the upslope connection recorded following the Rock Glacier Inventory and Kinematics guidelines.

The rock glacier inventory includes mean velocity (m/yr), median velocity (m/yr), velocity standard deviation (m/yr), rock glacier upslope connection, area (m²) and the central coordinates in the attribute table.

The accompanying velocity magnitude raster and vector shapefile provide further velocity information. The uncertainty of the velocity results is 0.35 m/year, the purpose of this dataset was to focus on identifying the spatial patterns of flow, particularly at the sub landform scale. We advise that the raster and vectors are used in conjunction with one another when interpreting the results on individual rock glaciers.