Images from European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1A satellite show that Greenland’s Jakobshavn glacier, the fastest moving glacier in the world, shed a chunk of ice measuring 12.5 square km past week – one of the most significant calving events on record.
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Different comparable occasions have been documented the place the glacier parted with 7 sq km of ice, each earlier this yr and again in 2010.
The picture time collection means that between 27 July and 13 August, the glacier superior westward earlier than the calving prompted speedy retreat of the entrance to its place on 19 August.
“Icebergs are often so large that they can not float away easily”, said ESA.
Jakobshavn Glacier drains 6.5 percent of Greenland’s ice sheet and a accounts for a tenth of the nation’s icebergs, totaling some 35 billion tons of floating ice.
Radar images feature the glacier before and after the calving event which occurred between August . 14 and 16. Ian Joughin, a glaciologist at the University of Washington’s Polar Science Center told The Christian Science Monitor that Jakobshavn Glacier is actually a fast current of ice within this ice sheet. If an iceberg doesn’t melt enough, sometimes it breaks when hit by other icebergs coming from behind.
Studied for over 250 years, the Jakobshavn glacier has helped to develop our understanding of the significance of ice streams and in local weather change, icecap glaciology, and the way they have an effect on sea degree.
The Sentinel-2a satellite is Europe’s new optical spacecraft and can provide context imagery. Whereas Sentinel-1A is an all-weather, day-and-night radar imaging mission, Sentinel-2A carries a multispectral imager.
A massive chunk of ice has broken off a glacier in Greenland which is so large you can see it from space. Using the European Union’s Sentinel satellites, the European Space Agency has been monitoring the glacier and its activity. 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.
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Together, these and future Sentinels, in particular the upcoming Sentinel-3 mission, will add further complementary measurements for operational applications and scientific purposes.
