Pine Island Glacier Retreat, Antarctica

This visualization shows Sentinel-1 imagery from October 2014 to October 2017 over Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica. The advance and retreat of the front of this ~35-kilometer (~22-mile) wide outlet glacier can be seen in this 6-day interval image series. The rapid flow of inland ice causes the glacier front to advance and two major calving events cause the ice front to retreat.

Combined, the 2015 and 2017 calving events have led to the glacier’s ice front being fully disconnected from the North Ice Shelf. The changes to this large outlet from West Antarctica could signal additional sea level contributions from this glacier and the even larger outlet to the west, Thwaites Glacier.

Credit: Stef Lhermitte, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA

This visualization shows composite images from Landsat 3 in early 1982 to Landsat 8 in late 2017 over Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica. The advance and retreat of this ~35-kilometer (22-mile) wide glacier can be seen in the ~35-year time series. Image boundaries can be observed where Landsat scenes have been composited. The time step between frames is irregular and depends on the availability of clear imagery. There are only a few frames before 2000 and then annual or better coverage in the years since then are used. The date on each frame is from the Landsat scene covering the glacier’s front.

The flow of inland ice causes the glacier’s front to advance and multiple calving events cause the front to retreat. Structural changes, including evolving rifts and intense crevassing within the glacier’s shear margins, especially on the north side, have been followed by large calving events beginning in 2001. This has led to the glacier’s ice front retreating ~25 kilometers (~15 miles) since 2000. Pine Island Glacier is now fully disconnected from the North Ice Shelf that has also retreated landward. The changes to this large outlet from West Antarctica indicate that additional sea level contributions will be coming in the future from this part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Credit: Christopher A. Shuman, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, at
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory, Greenbelt, MD USA

This image comparison shows the change in ice front position of Pine Island Glacier from March 2000 to October 2017, as observed by Landsat satellites. The glacier’s ice front has retreated ~25 kilometers (~15 miles) since 2000.