Collaborative research: constraining greenland glacier dynamics using 1940S historical aerial photography

The National Science Foundation Division of Polar Programs awarded Morgan State University $187,975 on September 1, 2026, to conduct collaborative research constraining Greenland glacier dynamics using 1940s historical aerial photography.

The project will digitize and analyze unprocessed aerial photographs taken by the U.S. military over Greenland in the 1940s and 1950s, currently held as film negatives by the U.S. National Archives. Of hundreds of thousands of historical photographs collected over Greenland, less than 4 percent have been digitized and almost none have been used to study glacier change. Using structure-from-motion photogrammetry with ground control provided by high-resolution satellite data, investigators will reconstruct past glacier surface elevations and generate orthorectified imagery, extending the historical record of ice sheet change by decades beyond current knowledge. The project will integrate historical data products into forward glacier mass simulations for both peripheral and ice sheet outlet glaciers, comparing projection ensembles to quantify how historical constraints can reduce uncertainty in future projections. Students will participate in all research phases from data digitization through analysis. The work will archive and preserve historical imagery that would otherwise continue to degrade and produce a dataset intended for broad scientific community use.

Performance occurs in Baltimore, Maryland. The period of performance runs from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2029. This is a Project Grant under the Polar Programs assistance listing (CFDA 47.078).

Abstract

This project will study how greenland's glaciers have changed over time using a large archive of unprocessed aerial photographs taken by the U.S. Military in the 1940S and 1950S. Of the hundreds of thousands of historical photographs collected over greenland, less than 4% have been digitized and almost none have been used to study glacier change. By scanning and analyzing these images, the investigators will reconstruct past glacier surface elevations, extending the historical record of ICE sheet change by decades beyond what is currently known and offering insight into how glaciers in the arctic behave over time. The project will produce a new data set expected to be highly valuable to the wider scientific community, while also archiving and preserving historical imagery that would otherwise continue to degrade. Students will be involved in all phases of the research from data digitization through analysis. Current understanding of greenland ICE sheet dynamics is limited by the temporal scale of existing datasets: outlet glacier terminus change records extend back to the 1930S with only partial coverage, while surface elevation change studies are limited to the past few decades. This project will digitize historical aerial photographs of greenland outlet glaciers, currently held as film negatives by the U.S. National archives, and generate surface elevations and orthorectified imagery using structure-from-motion photogrammetry, with ground control provided by high-resolution satellite data. The historical data products will be integrated into forward glacier mass simulations for both peripheral and ICE sheet outlet glaciers. The investigators will compare the spread of projections across ensemble members against those that match the new historical data set to quantify the extent to which ICE sheet wide historical constraints can reduce uncertainty in future glacier mass projections. All raw digitized imagery and derived products will be made publicly available, allowing other researchers to replicate the methodology or apply the generated products to their own research. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.