Massive iceberg breaks off Ross Ice Shelf

Courtesy the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center
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A massive iceberg, perhaps the largest on record, has broken free from the Antarctic’s Ross Ice Shelf. This image, taken from 700 kilometers in space by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s NOAA-12 polar-orbiting satellite, shows the iceberg’s margins as it breaks free from the Ross marine ice shelf. The iceberg, measuring 295 kilometers in length and 37 kilometers wide, encompasses an area of about 11,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of Connecticut.

According to Matthew Lazzara, a scientist at UW–Madison’s Antarctic Meteorological Research Center, the iceberg is about 295 kilometers in length and 37 kilometers wide. “This is a very big iceberg, close to a record if not a new record,” said Lazzara. “It’s not often that you see them of this magnitude.”

Images of the iceberg from two polar orbiting satellites are available through the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center, a research center supported by the National Science Foundation and housed within the Space Science and Engineering Center.

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration polar orbiter as well as a polar orbiter of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program gathered the data for the images which were assembled at the UW–Madison Space Science and Engineering Center.

Each satellite orbits the Earth, pole to pole, at an altitude of about 700 kilometers. Real-time satellite imagery can be obtained from the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center.