PIG Ice Shelf: First Contact

  • Released Sunday, April 13, 2008
View full credits

This past January NASA scientist Robert Bindschadler led an expedition to a previously untouched part of Antarctica that may be one of the best places to gauge how global warming is affecting the continent. Pine Island Glacier Ice Shelf (PIG for short) is believed to be among the most vulnerable spots ot melting on Earth, but it's also among the most remote. While satellite observations provide a wide-angle view of the action on the glacier, boots on the ground with high tech drills and sensors are needed to provide the close up shots to fill in the blanks.

Antarctica footage provided by Polar-Palooza/Passport to Knowledge

As you can see from this short video, the logistics of setting foot on the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf turned out to be a real challenge and the first trip had both its ups and its downs. Nonetheless, Bindschadler welcomes the challenge and has high hopes for what his continued research on Pine Island might uncover.

For a complete transcript of this video, please click here

For More Information

See http://pigiceshelf.gsfc.nasa.gov

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Antarctica footage provided by Polar-Palooza/Passport to Knowledge

This page was originally published on Sunday, April 13, 2008.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:55 PM EDT.

Series

This visualization can be found in the following series: