An Antarctic iceberg A-74, which is twice the size of Mumbai, collided with its parent Brunt ice sheet and just escaped breaking off another piece from its father, according to radar photos taken by ESA’s Sentinel-1 pair of satellites. The other nose-shaped iceberg, which is only tenuously tied to its parent, is the result of the collision, which also caused a fissure in the Brunt ice sheet. The space agency released the satellite pictures on August 20.
Details about a satellite reveals an iceberg breaking off in Antarctica that is twice the size of Mumbai
The collision between A-74 and the Brunt ice sheet is depicted in the photographs, which were shared on Twitter in the form of a GIF animation by the official ESA Earth Observation Twitter account. In February of this year, A-74 had separated from the Brunt ice sheet. The nose-shaped iceberg is larger than A-74 and, despite the crack, is still attached to the Brunt ice sheet, according to ESA Earth and Mission Science Division Head Mark Drinkwater.
Drinkwater adds in a statement that if the berg had struck this section more violently, it “may have expedited the fracture of the remaining ice bridge, forcing it to break away.” British Atlantic Survey had moved its Halley VI Research Station to a safer position after the area where A-74 broke off was judged unsafe due to the spread of a major crack.
The British Atlantic Survey runs the Halley Research Station in Antarctica, which is a research centre for the study of Earth’s environment and observation of the planet’s climate and space weather. Despite being difficult to get, the station’s location is crucial because it is in a region that is climate-sensitive. Furthermore, ice sheets are excellent climate indicators due to their sensitivity to climate change as well as the fact that they are primarily responsible for the rise in sea level around the world. The scientific facility also monitors the atmosphere of our planet. For instance, the ozone layer hole on Earth was found by the Halley Research Station.
Using pictures from the Sentinel satellites, scientists claim to regularly monitor the state of the ice shelf. Sentinel 1A and Sentinel 1B, two spacecraft deployed by the European Space Agency in 2014 and 2016, make up the Sentinel-1 constellation. The earth’s surface is imaged by the satellites in all seasons and at all hours of the day.
