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Articles | Volume 20, issue 7
Articles | Volume 20, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-4133-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-4133-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 20, issue 7
Research article
 | 
28 Jul 2026
Research article |  | 28 Jul 2026

Svalbard glacier calving front changes from the 1930s to the 1970s from archived satellite and aerial images

Loris Danjou, Eero Rinne, and Erik Schytt Mannerfelt

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Cited articles

Bayr, K. J., Hall, D. K., and Kovalick, W. M.: Observations on glaciers in the eastern Austrian Alps using satellite data, Int. J. Remote Sens., 15, 1733–1742, https://doi.org/10.1080/01431169408954205, 1994. a
Błaszczyk, M., Jania, J. A., and Hagen, J. O.: Tidewater glaciers of Svalbard: recent changes and estimates of calving fluxes, Pol. Polar Res., 30, 85–142, 2009. a, b, c
Błaszczyk, M., Moskalik, M., Grabiec, M., Jania, J., Walczowski, W., Wawrzyniak, T., Strzelewicz, A., Malnes, E., Lauknes, T. R., and Pfeffer, W. T.: The response of tidewater glacier termini positions in Hornsund (Svalbard) to climate forcing, 1992–2020, J. Geophys. Res.-Earth, 128, e2022JF006911, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JF006911, 2023. a
Cooper, M. A., Lewińska, P., Smith, W. A. P., Hancock, E. R., Dowdeswell, J. A., and Rippin, D. M.: Unravelling the long-term, locally heterogenous response of Greenland glaciers observed in archival photography, The Cryosphere, 16, 2449–2470, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2449-2022, 2022. a, b
Copernicus Climate Change Service: ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1940 to present, Climate Data Store (CDS) [data set], https://doi.org/10.24381/CDS.F17050D7, 2019. a
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We retrieved front locations for 171 Svalbard tidewater glaciers in the 1960s and 1970s, from Landsat images and – for the first time in this region – declassified intelligence satellite photographs. We compared our results to aerial photographs from the 1930s and calculated that these glaciers retreated by about 1 km between 1936 and 1978. We also discovered one undocumented glacier surge (a rapid front advance), precised the time frames of two others, and documented two other glacier advances.
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