Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




EARTH OBSERVATION
Earth From Space: Giant Iceberg Enters Nares Strait
by Staff Writers
Paris, France (ESA) Sep 06, 2010


Watch the animation of the glacier moving into the Nares Strait.

ESA's Envisat satellite has been tracking the progression of the giant iceberg that calved from Greenland's Petermann glacier on 4 August 2010. This animation shows that the iceberg, the largest in the northern hemisphere, is now entering Nares Strait - a stretch of water that connects the Lincoln Sea and Arctic Ocean with Baffin Bay.

The Petermann glacier in northern Greenland is one of the largest of the country's glaciers - and until August it had a 70 km tongue of floating ice extending out into the sea.

The glacier regularly advances towards the sea at about 1 km per year.

Earlier this year, satellite images revealed that several cracks had appeared. Envisat radar images showed that the ice tongue was still intact on 3 August but, on 4 August, a huge chunk had detached.

Calvings from the Petermann glacier are quite common, but one of this magnitude is rare. Less significant events took place in 2001, in 2008 when a 27 sq km iceberg made its way south to Davis Strait, and in 2009.

This iceberg is about 30 km long and 15 km wide at its foot and almost 7 km wide at its head, covering an area of around 245 sq km. By 22 August this giant mass of ice had been carried about 22 km from its birth place.

On 1 September imagery showed that the iceberg had travelled almost another 6 km from the edge of the glacier and rotated westward (about 39 degrees ), just tipping into Nares Strait. The animation also shows that the iceberg hit a small island, which may delay further progression for a short while and may also cause the iceberg to break.

It is expected that the iceberg will soon be fully in Nares Strait, but its course depends on winds blowing off the glacier and currents in the strait, as well as sea ice that could block its path.

The animation was generated from 21 Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) Wide Swath Mode (spatial resolution 150 m x 150 m) and three ASAR Image Mode (spatial resolution 30 m x 30 m) images.

.


Related Links
ESA Envisat
Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








EARTH OBSERVATION
Critical Polar Data Flows Briskly To Researchers
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 03, 2010
Operation IceBridge - a NASA airborne mission to observe changes in Earth's rapidly changing polar land ice and sea ice - is soon to embark on its fourth field season in October. The mission is now paralleled by a campaign to bring data to researchers as quickly as possible and to accelerate the analysis of those changes and how they may affect people and climate systems. "Anyone can acces ... read more


EARTH OBSERVATION
China Publishes Official Chinese Names For Places On The Moon

Arizona Stands In For The Moon And Mars

The Moon Puts On Camo

Moon Capital: A Commercial Gateway To The Moon

EARTH OBSERVATION
Next Mars Rover Stretches Robotic Arm

Missing Piece Inspires New Look At Mars Puzzle

Opportunity Studies Interesting Rocks

Mars life may have been missed years ago

EARTH OBSERVATION
ATHLETE Rover Steps Up To Long Desert Trek

Desert RATS 2010

Setting Sail In The Sun

NASA Provides Assistance To Trapped Chilean Miners

EARTH OBSERVATION
China's Second Lunar Probe Chang'e-2 To Reach Lunar Orbit Faster Than Chang'e-1

China Finishes Construction Of First Unmanned Space Module

China Contributes To Space-Based Information Access A Lot

China Sends Research Satellite Into Space

EARTH OBSERVATION
Module To Get A Home In Space

Canadian to command space station in 2013

Russian Cosmonauts Long For Hot Showers On ISS

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Makes Last Stop On Earth

EARTH OBSERVATION
China Launches Satellite Sinosat-6 For TV, Radio Live Broadcast

Arianespace Announces Launch Contracts For Intelsat-20 And GSAT 10 Satellites

Arianespace Launches Two Satellites

New Rocket Launch Period In And Around Tanegashima

EARTH OBSERVATION
Chemical basis for first life theorized

UF Astronomers Find Potassium In Giant Planet's Atmosphere

A Dusty, Cloudy Exoplanet

Kepler Discovers Multiple Planets Transiting A Single Star

EARTH OBSERVATION
Bacteria could make self-healing concrete

Scientists create 'smarter' materials

Sony unveils new e-readers, adds touchscreen to all models

Apple unveils new iPods, cuts Apple TV price




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement