Earth ID: 12476

At Glacial Speed

Story by Kate Ramsayer | Visualizations by Cindy Starr Released on March 13, 2017

Glaciers and ice sheets move in unique and sometimes surprising patterns, as evidenced by a new capability that uses satellite images to map the speed of flowing ice in Greenland, Antarctica and mountain ranges around the world. With imagery and data from Landsat 8, a joint mission of NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, scientists are providing a near-real-time view of every large glacier and ice sheet on Earth. Researchers aim to better understand how ice flow is changing worldwide by integrating information about atmosphere and ocean conditions to determine what causes these ice sheets to change – and what that means for how much ice is flowing into the ocean. That could help provide critical information to coastal communities that will be most impacted by sea level rise. The Heimdal glacier in Southeast Greenland shown here can travel more than 33 feet (10 meters) per day in early summer and less than 20 feet (6 meters) per day by October. Watch the video to learn more.

Source Material

For More Information

NASA.gov

Story Credits

Lead Visualizer/Animator:
Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)

Visualizers/Animators:
Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC)
Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)

Lead Producer:
Matthew R. Radcliff (USRA)

Producer:
Kathryn Mersmann (USRA)

Scientists:
Twila Moon (University of Bristol)
Mark Fahnestock (University of Alaska)
Ted Scambos (NSIDC)
Alex S. Gardner (NASA/JPL CalTech)

Project Support:
Joycelyn Thomson Jones (NASA/GSFC)
Eric Sokolowsky (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
Leann Johnson (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)

Lead Writer:
Kate Ramsayer (Telophase)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.

Photo of Heimdal glacier courtesy of NASA/John Sonntag.

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12476

Mission:
Landsat

Data Used:

RADARSAT-1/SAR

2000-2013

Credit:
Additional credit goes to Canadian Space Agency, RADARSAT International Inc.

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Greenland Mapping Project (GIMP) Digital Elevation Model also referred to as: GIMP Greenland DEM

Data Compilation - Courtesy of Ian Howat, OSU - 2003-2009

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Landsat-8/Global Land Ice Velocity also referred to as: GoLIVE

Analysis - Oct. 2013 - Oct. 2016

Credit:
Mark Fahnstock (Univ. of Alaska), Twila Moon (Univ. of Bristol), Ted Scambos (Univ. of Colorado/NSIDC), Marin Klinger (Univ. of Colorado/NSIDC), Alex Gardner (JPL), Terry Haran (Univ. of Colorado/NSIDC)

view all stories where this data set is used