Immediately after the end of the Second World War, the US Air Force still had a number of fighter planes stationed in Europe. Instead of withdrawing them, they were used for a mapping project with the primary aim of documenting the destruction using images. A research team led by project manager Jakob Abermann from the Institute of Geography and Spatial Research at the University of Graz and Tobias Bolch from the Institute of Geodesy at Graz University of Technology is now using these archival images to study the glaciers of the time.
“The 1940s are particularly interesting for us because it was also relatively warm back then and the snow line was therefore very high in summer,” says Jakob Abermann. “In addition, the historical aerial photographs offer a unique opportunity to analyse the glaciers across their entire area.” Until now, there have only been isolated measurements of individual ice fields. The scientist and his project team managed to acquire copies of the images. A first glance at the documents clearly shows the disintegration of larger glaciers into small, almost static ice fields. The researchers also identified a number of newly formed lakes and changes in river courses.
“It is our responsibility towards society not to let this treasure chest of data lie dormant in archives, but to process it,” says Abermann. Tobias Bolch, an expert in analysing historical aerial photographs at Graz University of Technology, has already scanned the first images. “It's amazing what high quality was achieved back then. It's about time that we got detailed information on an important point in the history of the high mountains,” emphasises the researcher.
In a further step, the change in glacier areas and volumes since the Little Ice Age around 1850 will be analysed and interpreted climatologically. The results should be available in four years and made publicly accessible via Austrian mapping services.
The project is funded by several federal states, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Universities of Graz, Innsbruck and Graz University of Technology.
