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NDTV
21-05-2025
- Science
- NDTV
NASA Satellite Shows World's Largest Iceberg Breaking Into Thousands Of Pieces. What Happens Next
The world's largest iceberg, A23a, is breaking apart into smaller pieces, posing a threat to humans and the millions of penguins in the nearby Antarctic sanctuary. NASA's Aqua satellite, equipped with MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), has captured striking images of the massive iceberg A23a breaking apart. The photos show thousands of smaller ice chunks detaching from the iceberg's northern edge, creating a hazardous icy landscape in the surrounding area. The image highlights the iceberg's enormous size, comparable to South Georgia Island (approximately 1400 square miles), which is famously known for Ernest Shackleton's rescue mission after the Endurance shipwreck. "Thousands of iceberg pieces litter the ocean surface near the main berg, creating a scene reminiscent of a dark, starry night," wrote representatives with the space agency, NASA wrote in a statement. The "megaberg" A23a, currently the world's largest iceberg, has a surface area of approximately 1,200 square miles. It calved from Antarctica's Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in 1986 but remained trapped until 2023. After breaking free, it regained the title of largest iceberg in June 2023. A23a became stuck again in a vortex in early 2024 but broke free in December. It is now grounded off South Georgia Island, where it will likely remain until it melts or breaks apart in the "iceberg graveyard" of the Scotia Sea. As per NASA, the massive iceberg is breaking apart into smaller pieces through a process called "edge wasting." Although the new icebergs appear small compared to A23a, many are still around a kilometre across, posing a risk to ships. The largest piece to break off, dubbed A23c, measures approximately 50 square miles. Since getting stuck in March, A23a has shrunk by about 200 square miles. It's expected to take months or years for the iceberg to fully disintegrate. A23a's size lead is also narrowing, with another iceberg, D15A, closing in on its record. The Impact South Georgia Island is home to a diverse wildlife population, including seals, seabirds, and over 2 million penguins, but has a sparse human presence with only a few dozen researchers visiting annually. The massive iceberg A23a, currently grounded offshore, could potentially disrupt the ecosystem by forcing penguins to travel longer distances to find prey and altering the surrounding water temperature and salinity with its meltwater. Some of these fragments measure over half a mile wide and could therefore "pose a risk to ships," according to NASA. However, its relatively distant location from the coast may mitigate the impact. Some researchers suggest the melting iceberg could also have a positive effect by releasing nutrients into the ocean, benefiting the marine ecosystem. Scientists warn that similar events, such as massive iceberg break-offs, may become more frequent in the future because of climate change. This acceleration of ice shelf melting could have significant implications for global sea levels, ocean ecosystems and the planet's climate as a whole.
New York Post
20-05-2025
- Science
- New York Post
World's largest iceberg is breaking into thousands of pieces — putting people and wildlife at risk
The iceberg goeth? The world's largest iceberg, A23, is fragmenting into smaller pieces, potentially jeopardizing both humans and the millions of penguins in the neighboring Antarctic refuge. Alarming photos snapped by NASA's Aqua satellite have revealed that the periphery of the frozen mass is beginning to break apart, particularly along its northern edge, turning the surrounding area into an icy minefield. Advertisement 'Thousands of iceberg pieces litter the ocean surface near the main berg, creating a scene reminiscent of a dark starry night,' wrote representatives with the space agency, Live Science reported. 4 The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image of the berg, named A23, on May 3, 2025. NASA This marks the culmination of an epic voyage for the so-called mega-berg, which boasts a surface area of 1,200 square miles — making it the largest iceberg in the world. Advertisement After being trapped on the ocean floor since 1986, the colossal ice cube broke away from its position several years back, and drifted into the Southern Ocean. A23's floe state was interrupted again in 2024, when it became stranded in a spinning vortex, before eventually breaking free and resuming its journey North. 4 A23 is the largest iceberg in the world. Getty Images Then in January, the mega-berg was spotted making a bee-line for South Georgia Island — a British territory known for its unique wildlife — but ground to a halt just 60 miles offshore, which scientists believe could be A23's final resting place. Advertisement While the sheet thankfully didn't run aground on the island, this frozen cluster bomb could still potentially threaten the millions of penguins and seals that reside there. 4 Researchers worry that A23 could obstruct penguin feeding routes. / Penguins could potentially need to navigate hundreds of miles around the moored ice mass to reach their feeding grounds while the mega-berg's meltwater could affect the temperature and salinity of the surrounding sea. In 2004, some of South Georgia's resident penguin chicks and seal pups died after an ice island named A38 broke off and obstructed their feeding routes. Advertisement Researchers hope A23's location far off the coast will hopefully mitigate its impact on the ecosystem. 4 This handout satellite image released by Copernicus Sentinel Data 2025, shows A23 getting closer to the South Georgia Island on February 24, 2025. COPERNICUS SENTINEL DATA 2025 /AFP via Getty Images Unfortunately, animals might not be the only ones who might be in danger during the ice floe's death throes. Some of these fragments measure over half a mile wide and could therefore 'pose a risk to ships,' according to NASA. The largest berg — which measures around 50 square miles — is currently drifting south out of view of the satellite photo. The situation perhaps inspires flashbacks of an incident in 2023 that occurred when a floe named A76 came close to grounding and left a veritable icy obstacle course in its wake. 'Those pieces basically cover the island (South Georgia) — we have to work our way through it,' said Captain Simon Wallace, who helms the South Georgia government vessel Pharos. Advertisement His crew has searchlights 'on all night' so they won't be blindsided by a berg. Despite literally falling to pieces, A23 won't be going away overnight as researchers estimate that it will take months or even years for the frozen juggernaut to disintegrate entirely. In the interim, A23 will likely lose its title of world's biggest iceberg. As of A23, the sheet is only around 12 square miles larger than the next-biggest iceberg, D15A.
Newsweek
01-05-2025
- Climate
- Newsweek
NASA Images Reveal Texan Conditions Not Seen Since 1936
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Stuck in the grip of an exceptional drought, the city of El Paso, Texas, is facing dusty conditions not seen in nearly 90 years. NASA has released an image of the latest dust storm captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the space agency's Aqua satellite, on April 27. Particles can be seen streaming through the air from dried lakes and other parched areas in New Mexico and the Mexican state of Chihuahua toward El Paso and Las Cruces. Environmental scientist Thomas Gill of the University of Texas at El Paso has been using such satellite observations and modeling to track dust activity in the Borderplex Region that straddles the Texas, New Mexico and Chihuahua border intersection. Gill said that this year's busy dust season, which typically spans March through May for the city, has been "truly exceptional—one for the record books." A "full-fledged" dust storm, Gill added, is one in which visibility falls to just half-a-mile. This latest storm is the 10th such event this year—far above the 1.8 storm annual average. "You would have to go back to 1936, during the Dust Bowl, to find a year with more," Gill added. The year 1936 saw El Paso hit with 11 dust storms; 1935 saw a total of 13. NASA image of dust storms over the Borderplex Region on April 27, 2025. NASA image of dust storms over the Borderplex Region on April 27, 2025. NASA / Wanmei Liang / MODIS The storms of the Dust Bowl were caused by a combination of severe drought alongside the expansion of farming land amid the Great Depression and poor farming practices that damaged natural topsoils and enabled wind erosion. The present dust storms, meanwhile, are the result of extreme drought and unusually windy conditions. "We're in the worst drought we've seen in at least a decade—and this March was the windiest we've seen in more than 50 years," Gill said. The environmental scientist and his colleagues have found that the dangers of dust storms are often underestimated. By slashing visibility, storms can lead to an increase in traffic accidents; dust has also been linked to an increase in emergency-room visits resulting from cardiorespiratory problems and is also suspected to play a role in Valley Fever. This condition—formally known as coccidioidomycosis, after the soil-swelling Coccidiodes fungus that causes it—can cause symptoms including cough, fever and shortness of breath. Alongside these health issues, it has also been estimated that dust storms typically cause in excess of $150 billion in economic damages each year, with farmers, households, the renewable energy industry and the health-care sector all taking hits. "It should be interesting to see how far the dust from this event travels," said atmospheric scientist Santiago Gasso, who works at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "Some of it could be headed to the Great Lakes, New England and maybe even to Greenland—as happened after one of the storms in March." As for the Borderplex region, more dust is expected to hit El Paso and its neighbors, perhaps even as early as this weekend. So far this dust season, the area has seen 28 days with dust—significantly higher than the 22-day average seen over the past 25 years. Gill concluded: "We still have several more weeks of the dust season to go." Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about dust storms? Let us know via science@ References Feng, I. Y., Gill, T. E., Van Pelt, R. S., Webb, N. P., & Tong, D. Q. (2025). Economic costs of wind erosion in the United States. Nature Sustainability, 8(3), 307—314. Tong, D. Q., Feng, I., Gill, T. E., Schepanski, K., & Wang, J. (2023). How Many People Were Killed by Windblown Dust Events in the United States? Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Tong, D. Q., Gill, T. E., Sprigg, W. A., Van Pelt, R. S., Baklanov, A. A., Barker, B. M., Bell, J. E., Castillo, J., Gassó, S., Gaston, C. J., Griffin, D. W., Huneeus, N., Kahn, R. A., Kuciauskas, A. P., Ladino, L. A., Li, J., Mayol-Bracero, O. L., McCotter, O. Z., Méndez-Lázaro, P. A., … Vimic, A. V. (2023). Health and Safety Effects of Airborne Soil Dust in the Americas and Beyond. Reviews of Geophysics, 61(2). Tong, D. Q., Gorris, M. E., Gill, T. E., Ardon-Dryer, K., Wang, J., & Ren, L. (2022). Dust Storms, Valley Fever, and Public Awareness. GeoHealth, 6(8).
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Giant, near-perfect cloud ring appears in the middle of the Pacific Ocean — Earth from space
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. QUICK FACTS Where is it? In the middle of the Pacific Ocean What's in the photo? A circular, open-celled cloud above the ocean surface Which satellite took the photo? NASA's Terra satellite When was it taken? Sept. 3, 2014 This striking satellite image reveals a giant, near-perfect cloud circle that formed in the heart of the Pacific Ocean more than a decade ago. While this type of cloud is not uncommon, it is extremely rare to find one isolated and in the middle of nowhere, experts say. The strange structure, which is approximately 280 miles (450 kilometers) wide, was spotted "a few thousand kilometers southwest of the Hawaiian Islands" by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. The fluffy ring is made up of cumulus clouds that have been sculpted into a Rayleigh-Benard convection cell — a meteorological phenomenon powered by the rising and falling of air that's been warmed or cooled to different temperatures, known as convection. There are two types of cloud cells: closed cells, which occur when cold air sinks around the cells' border, causing clouds to form at their centers; and open cells, which occur when cold air sinks at the cells' center, triggering clouds to form around their borders, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The cloud ring in the satellite photo was formed by a closed cell. Cloud cells are normally hexagonal and usually appear alongside other cells of the same type, creating noticeable patterns in the sky. Open-cell clouds often form wispy honeycomb-like lattices, but for some reason, this cell appears to be all on its own. Related: See all the best images of Earth from space The lone cloud ring was likely triggered by a parcel of warm air over a small island or patch of water that was superheated by the sun, according to the Earth Observatory. "As the warm air became buoyant and rose, cumulus clouds and eventually patches of light rain probably developed. The rain would have cooled the air beneath the clouds, causing a downdraft that sent rain-cooled air outward from the original location of the clouds," Earth Observatory representatives wrote. "When the rain-cooled air encountered warmer air at the edge of the cell, it likely pushed the warm air up, which caused the ring of cumulus clouds to form." The cloud cell was located just south of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ICZ) — a low-pressure belt near the equator where the trade winds trigger frequent thunderstorms and heavy rainfall. This may have also played a role in the cloud's creation, according to the Earth Observatory. MORE EARTH FROM SPACE —Italy's 'ticking time bomb' plays peek-a-boo through a mysterious hole in the clouds —Bizarre 'pet cloud' reappears above its favorite spot in New Zealand —Svalbard's radioactive 'Bear Island' surrounded by rare cloud swirls and a giant algal bloom The ocean surface to the east (right) of the cloud ring appears to have a metallic shine. This is the result of a sunglint, where sunlight bounces off the sea and directly back to an observing instrument in space. This can transform large patches of the ocean into swirling silver mirrors. Cloud cells were only discovered in 1961, thanks to images from NASA's Television Infrared Observation Satellite 1 (TIROS-1) satellite — the first full-scale weather satellite ever launched into space. Before then, the intricate patterns of the cells had gone largely unnoticed by meteorologists, according to the Earth Observatory.
