High summer temperatures caused record melting of the Norwegian archipelago’s glaciers. 🧊
Home to some of Earth’s northernmost glaciers, Svalbard is one of the fastest-warming places on the planet. In late July and early August 2024, temperatures hovered around 4 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) above average for this part of the Arctic Circle. Its ice caps broke their all-time record for daily surface melt on July 23.
#Landsat captured these images of Nordaustlandet—the second largest island in the archipelago—on August 9 as water and sediment drained off the coast. Sediment is likely causing the swirls of color in the water surrounding the island.
Image Descriptions:
1: Satellite image of Nordaustlandet, the second largest island in the Svalbard archipelago. The island is mostly covered in a blanket of white ice. Melting has exposed a brown landscape along the coast. Swirls of brown and teal fade from the coast into the dark blue ocean.
2: Close-up of a satellite image of Nordaustlandet, the second largest island in the Svalbard archipelago. The island is mostly covered in a blanket of white ice. Melting has exposed a brown landscape along the coast. Sediment creates swirls of brown and teal that fade into the dark blue Arctic Ocean.
#Svalbard #Norway #Glaciers #EarthFromSpace #Earth #Ice
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