According to researchers funded by the National Science Foundation,
several penguin colonies near the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica have
not been able to hatch their young this year due to a combination
of huge icebergs grounded near Ross Island and an unprecedented
amount of sea ice in the Ross Sea. The grounded icebergs and
sea ice have increased the distance between the penguins' feeding
areas in the open sea and their breeding grounds. The birds
affected include one of Antarctica's most populous Adelie penguin
colonies, as well as a small colony of Emperor penguins.
These images from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer document
iceberg movements and changes in sea ice between December 11, 2000 and
December 9, 2001. Note the changing positions of icebergs C-16 and B-15A,
and the increased extent of sea ice in the December 2001 image relative to
the view acquired one year earlier. The icebergs initially calved from
the Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000 and gradually migrated to a point
northeast of McMurdo Sound where they have created a barrier that
has altered wind and current patterns. Iceberg C-16, measuring about
50 kilometers x 19 kilometers in size, was brought to a halt
at Ross Island at the beginning of 2001, after rapid rotation
during the latter part of 2000. The giant iceberg B-15A (of which
only a portion is shown) also rotated and moved southwest
until grounding at Ross Island.
The images were captured by MISR's nadir (vertical-viewing) camera
during Terra orbits 5235, 5497, 5599, 5759, 6192, and 10521. Each panel
covers an area of about 130 kilometers x 145 kilometers. South is
toward the top. McMurdo Station, a U.S. research facility, is located
near the southern tip of Ross Island's Hut Point Peninsula.
For a press release from the National Science Foundation containing
additional details and MISR imagery pertaining to this story, see
http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/press/01/pr01108.htm.
MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. The
Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, MD. JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology.
Image credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team.
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