Satellite Images Of Antarctica Over Time

The mass of the antarctic ice sheet has changed over the last several years.

Satellite images of antarctica over time.

It shows the topography of antarctica as blue lines research stations of the united states and the united kingdom in red text ice free rock areas in brown ice shelves in gray and names of the major ocean water bodies in blue uppercase text. Flying on both the aqua and terra satellites modis orbits the earth from north to south passing over antarctica many times every day. To create the landsat image mosaic of antarctica lima scientific visualizers combined landsat 7 scenes acquired between 1999 and 2001 a digital elevation model and field data measurements. The world s first high resolution three dimensional true color map of antarctica was built from more than 1 100 images from the landsat 7 satellite.

Ground receiving stations around the world downlink image data from the satellite when it passes over the station. Grace follow on began data collection in june 2018 and is. During the summer sunlight shines on the continent constantly. In an odd twist of fate the new record was broken in september 2014 only weeks after the discovery.

For this reason modis can only image antarctica during the summer. Zoom earth shows live weather satellite images updated in near real time and the best high resolution aerial views of the earth in a fast zoomable map. Research based on observations from nasa s twin nasa german aerospace center s twin gravity recovery and climate experiment grace satellites indicates that between 2002 and 2016 antarctica shed approximately 125 gigatons of ice per year causing global sea level to rise by 0 35 millimeters per year. The station s antenna points toward the satellite and tracks it for as long as it can until it moves out of range.

The satellite takes images of the earth below and streams it down to the station in real time. Recovered images of antarctica showed a greater extent of sea ice than ever measured before by scientists but the record was short lived. Data from nasa s grace and grace follow on satellites show that the land ice sheets in both antarctica upper chart and greenland lower chart have been losing mass since 2002. Map of antarctica and the southern ocean produced by the lima project landsat image mosaic of antarctica.

In contrast in the antarctic the sea ice coverage has been increasing although at a lesser rate than the decreases in the arctic. Mouse over the buttons below the image to see an outline of the 1964 near record and the 2014 record. Return to landsat 7 image gallery satellite imaging corporation is an official value added reseller var of imaging and geospatial data products for. The grace mission concluded science operations in june 2017.

Antarctica was enjoying summer when this image was taken.