Due to the influence of the Indian monsoon, the Kangri Karpo Mountains, located in southeast Tibet, is the most humid and maritime glacier-concentrated region on the Tibetan Plateau. Glacier mass loss in Kangri Karpo importantly contributes to the rise of global mean sea level, the adjustment of run-off distribution, and the increase of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Based on topographic maps (1980), SRTM (2000), and TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X (2014), the study obtained the latest glacier elevation changes on the Kangri Karpo Mountains. With a spatial extent of 29°N – 30°N, 96°E – 98°E totaling an area of 3600 km2, the Mountains cover the region south of the Purlung Tsangpo River and north of the Gongri–Gabo River. The dataset consists of two subsets: ① 2014 digital elevation model (DEM) data obtained from TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X, and ② raster data of glacier elevation changes during 1980 – 2014 based on topographic maps, SRTM and TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X acquisitions. To mitigate influences of cloud cover on optical images, Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) was used to extract DEM data and acquire glacier elevation changes. Compared with ICESat-GLAS, TerraSAR/TanDEM achieved a vertical precision of 2.65 m. Glacier mass balance resulting from glacier elevation changes showed a high consistency with field measurements. The dataset records the latest glacier elevation changes in the Kangri Karpo Mountains, with minimum influences of cloud and seasonal snow cover on the glacier maps. It can be used as a fundamental dataset in future glacier-related studies.
