What’s that blue hue? 🧊

Seasonal melting produced striking hues atop the sea ice before it broke away from the coast. The Larsen A and B embayments in these images now often contain seasonal sea ice (frozen seawater that floats on the ocean surface, often covered with snow) instead of ice shelves.

Much of this sea ice, known as “fast ice,” clings to coastlines and ice shelves. Fast ice can help resist against the seaward flow of glaciers on land and slow their contribution to sea level rise, though fast ice is less effective at this buffering effect compared to a much thicker ice shelf.

Video description:
00:00 A satellite image centered on the Larsen A and B embayments on the Antarctic peninsula’s eastern side captured on December 19, 2023. The ice shelf is on the left side of the image with some light blue seasonal sea ice on the Larsen A embayment and above. Two white circles highlight this sea ice. The text “What’s that blue hue?” is at the top of the image.

00:05 The text “Seasonal melting produced striking hues atop the sea ice before it broke away from the coast.” is now at the bottom of the image.

00:07 The image switches between the first image and an image of the same area captured on January 1, 2024. The ice shelf is on the left side of the image and the dark blue water is now where the seasonal sea ice of the Larsen A embayment was previously.

00:12 The text “Much of the sea ice seen here is known as “fast ice,” which clings to coastlines and ice shelves.” is at the top of the image. An arrow points to this sea ice.

#NASA #Earth #Climate #SeaIce #FastIce