Antarctic Peninsula from Space

The Envisat – Environmental Satellite – launched by the European Space Agency in 2002 captured this image using the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) on 5 February 2011 of the Antarctic Peninsula, which stretches beyond the Antarctic Circle to within 1050 km to the southern tip of South America.

The 1000-km-long arm of the mountainous peninsula is situated between the Bellingshausen Sea on the west and the Weddell Sea on the east.

Along the peninsula, ice shelves are nourished by glaciers streaming down from the central ice sheet plateau, which extends as a narrow spine along the central part of the peninsula.

These ice shelves are important indicators for on-going climate change because they are sandwiched by rising surface air temperatures and a warming ocean.

Text and Image Adapted from ESA

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top