Antarctica has been really been letting its tomentum down lately . First , there was news program of ahaunting humcoming from one of its ice-skating rink shelves . Then came theweirdo rectangular berg .
It ’s enough to make you consider aliens inhabit the Seventh Continent . But no , it ’s just our freak show planet doing its thing . And multitude for certain seem to have to enjoyed the latest spectacle , including the scientist who captured the viral images of the sheet cake - shaped drift hunk of frappe .
“ Everyone from cousin - in - law to parent to a friend over in Europe has [ messaged that they ’ve ] seen it , ” Jeremy Harbeck , the NASA scientist who snapped the images , told Earther .
Harbeck is a senior scientist with NASA ’s Operation IceBridge , a mission that flies instrument - laden plane to document the Department of State of the ice at both Pole . He secernate Earther he ’s been on 62 IceBridge flights — most of them over the Arctic ’s sea ice — so “ I like to think I ’ve seen a lot . ”
But the tabular iceberg was a first for him , peculiarly since most of his work is in the Arctic . There , you ’ll find lots of sea crank but precious few iceberg , which tend to go against off float glaciers and ice shelves that are in shorter supply in the gamey Arctic than they are in Antarctica .
On the disastrous day last workweek that he bewitch the tabular iceberg , he receive himself looking out the window of the DC-8 that NASA flies over the Antarctic after a morning looking at inland valleys of the south-polar peninsula . The carpenter’s plane had take a turn to where the Larsen C trash shelf meet the sea , and Harbeck was hop to overhear a glimpse of the Delaware - sized ‘ berg thatfractured off ledge last July .
Harbeck said the ledge is also known for flexing in a room that calves crisphead lettuce with penetrating angle and human face , but the one he fascinate is a specially striking example . Even if he did n’t know it was designate for viral celebrity , he be intimate it was worth snapping a few photos .
“ [ It ] was not a big one , not a small one , but the fact that it had a square conclusion capture my eye , ” he said . “ It was pretty photogenic . ”
The picture are the public facing part of a much large mission to understand what ’s happen to the satellite ’s overheat water ice . Harbeck work a camera onboard the aeroplane that avail calibrate highly raw optical maser mapping equipment called lidar that can precisely measure elevation modification in Methedrine . That data is , in turn , being used to dry land - truth and conduct calibre control of the data coming back from NASA’srecently - launch ICESat-2 artificial satellite .
The satellite provides a 310 - mile eminent view of internal-combustion engine at both perch and will aid monitor the region and thickness of shabu . The measurements are crucial for improving climate good example and understand how loyal seas could originate as climate variety melts ice on the estate . It ’s a big deal , and scientists are as hype about Harbeck ’s body of work and the satellite as the internet has been about the freakberg .
AntarcticaNASA
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