---
title: "NASA Scanners Detect Hidden Base Under Arctic Ice"
description: "NASA scientists have made a remarkable discovery while flying over the arctic ice in Greenland: an abandoned Cold War base."
date: "2024-11-26"
modified: "2024-11-26"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-hidden-base-arctic-ice"
categories:
  - "NASA"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "arctic"
  - "climate change"
  - "greenland ice sheet"
  - "ice sheet"
  - "NASA"
  - "the digest"
---

# NASA Scanners Detect Hidden Base Under Arctic Ice

![NASA scientists have made a remarkable discovery while flying over the arctic ice in Greenland: an abandoned Cold War base.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/nasa-discover-hidden-base-under-arctic-ice.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA\</em\>*

## Under the Ice

NASA scientists collected some marvelous readings while flying over the arctic ice in Greenland during an April 2024 survey.

The radar instrument onboard NASA's Gulfstream III aircraft [spotted an abandoned "city under the ice](<https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/153616/new-view-of-the-city-under-the-ice>)": a relic of the Cold War that was once used as a military base by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

The extremely remote outpost, dubbed Camp Century, includes a massive network of tunnels dug into the surface layers of the ice roughly 150 miles inland. Between 1959 and 1967, the site was used to test the feasibility of launching nuclear missiles from the Arctic.

Radar data obtained during the more recent flight shows a number of structures reaching into the icy surface underneath a 100-foot layer of ice and snow that accumulated over the last 56 years.

"We were looking for the bed of the ice and out pops Camp Century," said NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory cryospheric scientist Alex Gardner in a [statement](<https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/153616/new-view-of-the-city-under-the-ice>). "We didn’t know what it was at first."

## Unexpected Discovery

NASA's UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar), mounted to the Gulfstream III's belly, collected the data.

"In the new data, individual structures in the secret city are visible in a way that they’ve never been seen before," said NASA scientist Chad Greene, who was on board the aircraft during the survey, in a statement.

Scientists are using these maps to estimate when the camp could be exposed once again thanks to the ice sheet melting, a process that's being accelerated by climate change.

Experts have previously suggested that the site could start to be uncovered [by the end of the century](<https://cires.colorado.edu/news/greenland-and-legacy-camp-century>), which could have unintended consequences, including the exposure of radioactive waste materials and chemicals leaching into the surrounding environment.

The discovery of Camp Century was an entirely unexpected outcome for the team. The mission's primary goal was to study the effects of climate change on the Arctic.

"Our goal was to calibrate, validate, and understand the capabilities and limitations of UAVSAR for mapping the ice sheet’s internal layers and the ice-bed interface," Greene said.

"Without detailed knowledge of ice thickness, it is impossible to know how the ice sheets will respond to rapidly warming oceans and atmosphere, greatly limiting our ability to project rates of sea level rise," he added.

**More on the Arctic:** *[Cybertruck Arctic Expedition Succeeds Without Packing a Single Generator](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/cybertruck-arctic-expedition-succeeds>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)