About the RGI

What is the RGI?

The Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI) is a globally complete dataset of glacier outlines, designed to support large-scale studies of glacier area, volume, mass change, and sea-level contribution. It was named after Randolph, New Hampshire, USA, where the first planning meeting for a global glacier inventory was held in 2010.

The RGI excludes the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica but includes all peripheral glaciers. Version 7.0 contains outlines of approximately 275,000 glaciers covering a total area of around 705,000 km².

The Working Group

The RGI is produced by the IACS Working Group on the Randolph Glacier Inventory, operating under the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS). The Working Group coordinates the compilation, quality control, and distribution of the inventory.

The RGI draws on glacier outlines contributed by hundreds of researchers worldwide and hosted in the GLIMS (Global Land Ice Measurements from Space) database at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

Data and Documentation

• Current version (RGI 7.0): https://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0770
• User Guide: http://www.glims.org/rgi_user_guide/welcome.html
• GLIMS database: https://www.glims.org

Contact

For questions about the RGI, please refer to the NSIDC data page or email contact@rgidata.org.