NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

ISS Science Highlight: Icebergs, the International Space Station and International Polar Year

Icebergs seens from the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA

'Tis the season for snow and ice. Even employees at the Johnson Space Center in Texas were thinking about the white stuff this week. Snow and ice are more than a seasonal phenomenon for scientist Ted Scambos, at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder Colorado. His team has been tracking the break-up of ice shelves in the Antarctic.

In a recent article published in the Journal of Glaciology, Dr. Scambos and colleagues report on their work observing the disintegration of large tabular icebergs, giant pieces of the Antarctic ice shelves that have broken off and drifted northward into the South Atlantic Ocean. Part of their work is based on images taken from the ISS. Scambos and his team study the icebergs as proxies for ice-shelf break-up. Observing the icebergs -- which can be very large (10s of km on a side) -- allows scientists to test models of the calving and break-up as it occurs. The process along the actual ice shelves takes years or decades; as the icebergs float into warmer waters, they break apart rapidly.

The attached image, used by Scambos, shows the regional view of Iceberg A22A, also known as "Amigosberg", and a much more detailed image of ice breakup along the margin (white box and inset). The images were taken as part of the ISS support of the International Polar Year, initiated by astronaut Don Pettit, and implemented through the Crew Earth Observations payload. The International Polar Year started in 2007 and extends through February 2009; it is a global campaign to study the Earth's polar regions and their role in global climate change. In addition to icebergs, astronauts have provided IPY observations of other polar phenomena like aurora and polar mesospheric clouds.

The IPY images can be access at http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/IPY.

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