@nasagoddard

Weddell you Sea this! 🌊 This image of the Antarctic Peninsula with clear skies was taken by NASA’s Aqua satellite on December 11, 2022. The Larsen Ice Shelf, a large platform of glacial ice, floats to the east of the peninsula. Just east of that, sea ice drifts in the Weddell Sea. Usually from September to February, sea ice surrounding Antarctica will melt and break off. However, with strong winds and warm air temperatures, the amount of sea ice around the continent was the lowest in 45 years of satellite records by the end of December 2022, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. In the second image, captured by Landsat 9 on December 31, 2022, icebergs that broke off from the Larsen Ice Shelf drift in the Weddell. Image 1: Satellite image of the Antarctic Peninsula and Larsen Ice Shelf. A snowy white peninsula of ice stretching from the bottom left corner toward the mid-left portion of the image with an extension of white ice from the peninsula stretching toward the top of the image, called the Larsen Ice Shelf. To the left of the shelf, a dark pool of black ocean fills the upper-left corner. Smaller spots of black surrounded by white sea ice with jagged edges are to the right of the peninsula. Image 2: Satellite image of a large white sheet of ice extending from the bottom left to the top left of the image with pieces of snowy white icebergs breaking from the peninsula’s right side and drifting to the right central side of the image. Among the white pieces of iceberg are three medium-sized spots of black ocean peeking through in the lower right corner. An oval shaped, white iceberg is in the center of the image with spots of black oean surrounding its three sides that are farthest to the right. #NASA #Earth #Space #Antarctica #Ice #Icebergs

February 03, 2023