New High-Resolution Insights of Antarctica and Greenland from 1970s Soviet Satellite Archives

Understanding the long-term changes of glacier dynamics is more than ever crucial to improve models and projections of our polar regions. However, high-resolution remote sensing data are extremely rare before c. 1980 and challenging to process. Nonetheless, they are essential to produce high-quality photogrammetric products (Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and orthophotographs). Recently uncovered Soviet Era Soyuz KFA-1000 satellite photographs give us the earliest high-resolution insight of Antarctica and Greenland dating back to the 1970s. Since these images have been largely underused, they have the potential to open new scientific perspectives, with a spatial resolution of 2 m and images recorded in stereo geometry, hence competing with the latest generation of satellite imagery and complementing other archives as the declassified American KH imagery. Using modern photogrammetric processing techniques, e.g., structure-from-motion, we are reconstructing former surfaces and the flow of main outlet glaciers in both Antarctica and Greenland. Mostly lost from sight for 50 years, we are now resurrecting these highly valuable records and will make them freely available to science and the public and ready for discoveries in a variety of fields.