Old aerial photos supply new knowledge on glaciers in Greenland

Kurt H. Kjaer in Environmental Research Web: The glaciers in southeast Greenland are retreating rapidly with the ongoing global climate change. But now research from the University of Copenhagen shows that the glaciers can recuperate within a short timeframe if temperatures are to drop. The results are based on a collection of Danish aerial photos combined with both old and modern satellite imagery as well as field work. The scientific results have created international attention and have been published as a cover story in the highly esteemed journal Nature Geoscience.

"We have managed to get an overview of the glacial evolution over a period of 80 years. This is the first time ever this has been done in a study of glaciers in Greenland. Results show that glaciers can recuperate within a short time frame if climate changes and temperatures drop, as it has in a period after the 1940s," says PhD student and lead-author on the project Anders Bjørk, from Professor Eske Willerslev's Centre for GeoGenetics from University of Copenhagen.

Anders Bjørk adds: "Most of the scientific foundation, models, and theories on glaciers in Greenland and how global warming affects them are based on observations from satellites over the last ten years. Otherwise scientists have had to use previous warming events way into the past when wanting to compare today's massive retreat."

...Originally the many aerial photos, which have been achieved Danish National Survey and Cadastre, were used for producing new maps of the region in the early 1930s, as Denmark and Norway were fighting over the right of disposal of East Greenland, a fight without casualties which Denmark won at the International Court in Haag in the Netherlands in 1933....

Plate from a publication of the first IPY (International Polar Year, 1882-1883).  This photo by Adolphus Greely, Carlheim-Gyllenskiöld is older than the trove in question, but it was the best I could find in the public domain