Earth  ID: 1400

Antarctica: Larsen Ice Shelf Side by Side Comparison

Visualizations by Stuart A. Snodgrass Released on November 8, 1999
In 1978, scientists predicted that global warming would lead to a disintegration of Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves. Spaceborne data indicate that this prediction may be coming true. In these before and after images, note the dramatic change in the apparent shoreline. Scientists captured the first image using the ERS-1 satellite in 1992. As seen in the second image, collected by RADARSAT in 1997, huge changes have come to the coastline. In 1995, a 2000 square kilometer section of the ice shelf collapsed into thousands of fragments that eventually drifted out to sea. Researchers are still debating why the ice shelf broke up so dramatically, and what significance the break up has for interpreting local versus global changes to the environment. Theories include a series of warmer than usual summers which may have caused high levels of surface melting, or an overall climate warming trend.
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A side by side comparsion of the Larsen Ice Shelf before (1992) and after (1997) the collapse in 1995.
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Larsen Ice Shelf in 1992, prior to the collapse in 1995.
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Larsen Ice Shelf in 1997, after the collapse in 1995.

For More Information

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/stories/antarctica/index.html

Visualization Credits

Stuart A. Snodgrass (GST): Lead Animator
Marte Newcombe (GST): Animator
Ken Jezek (Ohio State University): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. Additional credit goes to Canadian Space Agency, RADARSAT International Inc.

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/1400

Data Used:
ERS-1
1992
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RADARSAT-1/SAR
1997/09/26-1997/11/04
Credit:
Additional credit goes to Canadian Space Agency, RADARSAT International Inc.
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
Antarctica

Keywords:
DLESE >> Cryology
SVS >> Ice Shelf
SVS >> Larsen
GCMD >> Location >> Antarctica
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