Glacier ice volumes in New Zealand

A glacier is a body of slow-moving ice, at least 1 hectare in area that has persisted for two decades or longer. New Zealand has 3,144 glaciers. Most are located along the Southern Alps on the South Island, although Mount Ruapehu on the North Island supports 18 glaciers.

The annual total glacier ice volume is reported in water equivalents, using the units km3. A value of 0.9 was used to convert an ice volume to a water equivalent volume.

http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/environment/environmental-reporting-series/environmental-indicators/Home/Atmosphere-and-climate/glacier-volume.aspx

This report differs from earlier reports. The provider used a longer and more recent set of measured mass balance gradient data from the Brewster Glacier rather than data from 1965 to 1975 from the Ivory and Tasman glaciers. Because of this, ice volume estimates will differ between this and earlier reports.

At URL provided, select 'Download' from the top right of the screen. You will have to register to download this dataset.

Glacier volume is strongly influenced by climate factors, such as temperature and precipitation. Changes in glacier ice volumes give some indication of changing climate conditions in New Zealand.
This dataset relates to the "Annual glacier ice volumes" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

This data was collected by NIWA. Glacier ice volumes originate from the 1978 New Zealand Glacier Inventory and the annual New Zealand glacier snowline survey programme which commenced in 1977. These use the end of summer snowline of 50 index glaciers for determining the annual mass balance of glacier ice, and geodetic survey information for 12 large low-angle debris-covered glaciers.