title: Digital elevation model and orthophotographs of Greenland based on aerial photographs from 1978-1987.
abstract: Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) play a prominent role in glaciological studies for the mass balance of glaciers and ice sheets. By providing a time snapshot of glacier geometry, DEMs are crucial for most glacier evolution modelling studies, but are also important for cryospheric modelling in general. We present a historical medium-resolution DEM and orthophotographs that consistently cover the entire surroundings and margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet 1978-1987. About 3,500 aerial photographs of Greenland are combined with field surveyed geodetic ground control to produce a 25 m gridded DEM and a 2 m black-and-white digital orthophotograph. Supporting data consist of a reliability mask and a photo footprint coverage with recording dates. Through one internal and two external validation tests, this DEM shows an accuracy better than 10 m horizontally and 6 m vertically while the precision is better than 4 m. This dataset proved successful for topographical mapping and geodetic mass balance. Other uses include control and calibration of remotely sensed data such as imagery or InSAR velocity maps.
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Niels J
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8700-7023
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Korsgaard
authors.affiliation: Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo 0316, Norway.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nuth
authors.affiliation: DTU Space-National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Department of Geodesy, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Shfaqat A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2689-8563
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark.|Department of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada.
authors.forename: Kristian K
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8557-5131
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Kjeldsen
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Anders A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Bjørk
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark.|Department of Geology, UiT-The Arctic University of Norway, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schomacker
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Kurt H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Kjær
mesh_terms: D006116:Greenland; D046448:Ice Cover; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D015203:Reproducibility of Results