Between 1850 and 1964, the Jakobshavn Glacier, Greenland’s largest outlet glacier, retreated at a steady rate of around 984 feet a year, according to NASA.
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At the end of ever summer for the last several years, University of Washington glaciologist Ian Joughin has examined Jakobshavin’s calving front move about 2,000 feet farther inland than the summer before, according to the Observatory report.
Scientists believe this calving transpired sometime between August 14 and August 16.
Satellite images taken by ESA suggest the calving occurred between Aug. 14 and Aug. 16, and it may have taken place in multiple events during that time.
Icebergs are usually so big that it’s impossible for them to easily float away, sometimes remaining stuck to a fjord’s shallower area until they melt, which allows for breaking into pieces.
Not all scientists however believe this to be the largest recorded instance of calving.
This iceberg came to be floating in the ocean as a huge chunk of the Jakobshavn Glacier has broken off into the ocean.
With the Jakobshavn draining 6.5 percent of Greenland’s ice sheet, it is responsible for about 10 percent of the icebergs in the ice sheet, which amounts to some 38.6 tons of ice calved each year.
Since radar can “see” by means of clouds and in the dead of night, Sentinel-1A it’s notably helpful for maritime surveillance, ship security, sea-ice charting and ice-sheet monitoring.
Sentinel 1-A, is the 1st satellite of the Copernicus constellation, that has with state-of-the-art radar imaging technology. The calving front position and other significant features reveal movement based on the image. The satellite covers the entire Earth’s surface once every ten days and will be joined by a twin to cut this time in half next year. Sentinel-2A also demonstrates here that it is valuable for ice and climate monitoring. It will also provide information on pollution in lakes and coastal waters.
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The mission has been designed and built by a consortium of around 60 companies led by Airbus Defence and Space, and supported by the CNES French space agency to optimise image quality and by the DLR German Aerospace Centre to improve data recovery using optical communications.
