Articles | Volume 9, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-2215-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-2215-2015
Brief communication
 | 
01 Dec 2015
Brief communication |  | 01 Dec 2015

Brief communication: Getting Greenland's glaciers right – a new data set of all official Greenlandic glacier names

A. A. Bjørk, L. M. Kruse, and P. B. Michaelsen

Abstract. Place names in Greenland can be difficult to get right, as they are a mix of Greenlandic, Danish, and other foreign languages. In addition, orthographies have changed over time. With this new data set, we give the researcher working with Greenlandic glaciers the proper tool to find the correct name for glaciers and ice caps in Greenland and to locate glaciers described in the historic literature with the old Greenlandic orthography. The data set contains information on the names of 733 glaciers, 285 originating from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) and 448 from local glaciers and ice caps (LGICs).

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Short summary
During the last centuries hundreds of glaciers in Greenland have been mapped and named. Here we present the official database of all Greenlandic glacier names - consisting of 733 glacier names that have been approved by the Greenlandic authorities. This data set will help researchers working with Greenlandic glaciers in naming the glaciers properly in order to avoid future misunderstandings and will help the researcher who is looking for older glacier names found in the historic literature.