Belle Isle (center) is surrounded by sea ice in this recent winter view
taken from the International Space Station. Belle Isle lies in the Belle
Isle Strait between the island of Newfoundland and the Labrador mainland (together the two are officially known as the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.) A portion of a small island along the coast of Labrador appears in the top left corner.
Belle Isle lies in a key location; it’s on the shortest shipping
lane between the Great Lakes and Europe, and also on the main north-south
shipping route to Hudson Bay and the Northwest Territories. Snow and ice
hide the dozens of glacier-scoured lakes that dot the surface of the island.
The single community of Belle Isle Landing on the southeast tip is equally
hard to see.
Ice patterns show that the island lies at the meeting point of two sea
currents (larger arrows). The Labrador Current flows from the northwest
(top left), and a smaller current, driven by dominant westerly winds, flows
from the southwest (lower left). Flow lines in sea ice give a sense of the
movement of the ice. Ice floes embedded in the Labrador Current appear in
the upper part of the picture as a relatively open pattern. Sea ice with a
denser pattern enters from the lower left corner, banking against the west
side of Belle Isle. Tendrils flow around capes at either end of the island,
with an ice-free “shadow” on the opposite, downstream side.
Eddies (curved arrows) in the ice patterns show where the currents interact
north and west of the island.
Astronaut photograph ISS012-E-15918 was acquired January 24, 2006, with a Kodak
760C digital camera and a 180 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth
Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson
Space Center. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to
improve contrast. The International Space
Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures
of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public,
and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images
taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of
Earth.