Melting and breaking of glacier content at Antarctica regions!

By Amrit Gotame -
After reaching the lowest extent ever measured in the satellite record in late February 2022, sea ice around Antarctica began to rebuild. On a smaller scale, however, the transition from melting to freezing can be abrupt. In March, for example, a patch of old sea ice near the Land Glacier in West Antarctica broke away as new ice formed. Part of the glacier's ice tongue crumbled at the same moment.



Recent status of glacier, image credits: Nasa earth 

Michael Lowe, an analyst at the United States National Ice Center, has been keeping a careful eye on this stretch of the Antarctic coast known as Marie Byrd Land. Lowe stated, "I've been keeping a watch on that area for the previous two months as a significant section of extremely old fast ice began to break apart." "I saw the tip of the Land Glacier was starting to break off while comparing two SAR photographs from consecutive days."

The changes may also be seen in this set of natural-color photos taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites on February 24 and March 23, 2022, respectively.

However, recent satellite observations revealed that fast ice around sections of Antarctica, especially off the coast of Marie Byrd Land, has been declining since MODIS records began about 2000. Even still, by the time of the February photograph, a significant portion remained. Much of the previous fast ice had broken away by March.

The creation of fresh sea ice is seen in the March photograph, which is another step in the natural lifecycle of sea ice. The smooth streaks and swirls are "nilas," which are tiny sheets of ice that are usually less than 10 cm thick. (Note that the green-yellow tint is mostly due to low light and automatic color corrections.) New ice that appears streaky is likely being driven around by winds and ocean circulation patterns, or "eddies."

Scientists are interested to see what happens to the glacier, icebergs, and sea ice off Marie Byrd Land during the next few winter and summer seasons. "Over the next few years, we'll be looking to see if the bergs that broke off the Land Glacier ground and allow a new region of old fast ice to form, re-stabilizing this area,"


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