1A Satellite Catches Jakobshavn Glacier Shedding Ice

“The calving events of Jakobshavn are becoming more spectacular with time, and I am in awe with the calving speed and retreat rate of this glacier”, said Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a news release.

Comparing images taken by Sentinel-1A on 27 July, and 13 and 19 August, the new face of Jakobshavn glacier has been pushed inland by several km to what appears to be its furthest easterly location since monitoring began in the mid-1880s.

Satellite imagery suggests Jakobshavn Glacier, a large, fast-moving outlet glacier in West Greenland, has birthed a massive iceberg – perhaps its largest ever.

The history of this last calving event is also revealed in images taken by Sentinel-2A on August 6 and 16. Assuming the ice is about 1400 m deep, this equates a quantity of 17.5 cubic km – which might cowl the entire of Manhattan Island by a layer of ice about 300 m thick. As the Post pointed out, calving (the separation of ice chunks from ice sheets and glaciers and subsequently falling into the sea) isn’t an uncommon phenomenon in this area of Greenland because of increasing sea and air temperatures in the region. This amounts to some 35 billion tonnes of ice that calve every year.

Similar events were documented showing the glacier parted with 7 sq km of ice, both earlier this year and back in 2010. The contour signifies the world of ice misplaced between pictures acquired on 6 and 16 August. They continue to be, typically for years, caught on the underside in shallower areas of the fjord till they lastly soften sufficient to disperse, break into items or are pushed out by icebergs arising from behind.

Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-2A are the primary two satellites in orbit for Europe’s Copernicus programme.

The changes to the glacier are so dramatic, they can be visibly seen on images taken from space by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel 1-A satellite.

Radar imaging allows images to be captured in the dark or when clouds are present, making it highly useful for maritime surveillance, monitoring ice sheets, charting sea ice and improving ship safety.

On the topic of melting ice, a polar bear in Norway is raising concern about climate change after it broke the record for the longest underwater dive.

Together, these and future Sentinels, in particular the upcoming Sentinel-3 mission, will add further complementary measurements for operational applications and scientific purposes.