Earth ID: 2102

Iceland Glacier Recession 1997 to 2000

Visualizations by Lori Perkins Released on April 9, 2001

This animation is a close up zoom into largest area of glacier recesion at the Breidamerkurjokull glacier in Iceland. The data from 1997 is taken from Landsat 5 and the 2000 data is from Landsat 7. The Breidamerkurjokull glacier in Iceland has been measured by Landsat to be receding since 1973. In 1997, Landsat 5 took several other images of the glacier. It was thought by some glacierologists that this particular glacier was receding quicker in the late 1990s than it did in the late 1980s or 1970s. After careful analysis Goddard's Glacierologist, Dorothy Hall, concluded that the recession from 1997 to 2000 occurs at a similar rate to the recession between 1973 and 2000. It is extremely controversial whether or not this recession is caused by global warming.

Visualization Credits

Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Dorothy Hall (NASA/GSFC): Scientist

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/2102

Mission:
Landsat

Data Used:

Landsat-7/ETM+

2000/09

http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/about/wrs.html

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Landsat-5/TM

1997/09

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This item is part of this series:
Iceland

Keywords:
SVS >> Breidamerkurjokull
DLESE >> Climatology
DLESE >> Cryology
SVS >> Recession
GCMD >> Location >> Iceland
SVS >> Glaciers
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0