With the arrival of summer in the southern hemisphere, sea ice that clung to the Antarctic Peninsula through austral winter 2023 is now letting go.
The seasonal transformation is visible in this pair of images, acquired by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on December 19, 2023 (top), and January 1, 2024 (bottom). The images are centered on the Larsen A and B embayments on the peninsula’s eastern side.
The embayments are named for the ice shelves that once floated here as part of the greater Larsen Ice Shelf. In the past three decades, two large sections of the ice shelf (Larsen A and B) have collapsed: Larsen A in 1995 and Larsen B in 2002. Larsen C, south of this image, still hangs on but its “coastline” changed dramatically in 2017 when it spawned a massive iceberg.
Read More: NASA Earth Observatory
Photo Credit: Wanmei Liang