Monitoring of Brunt Ice Shelf with Sentinel-1

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This is a Sentinel-1 image of Brunt Ice Shelf located in the Weddell Sea Sector of Antarctica...

...in 2012 a previously dormant rift - named Chasm 1 - suddenly began to show signs of growth...

...Then, in October 2016, scientists of the British Antarctic Survey
detected a new crack close to its Halley VI Research Station...

...The crack, dubbed 'Halloween crack', subsequently grew larger, and new cracks started to develop...

...Detailed time series of Sentinel-1 data have enabled scientists to monitor the growth of these cracks as never before...

In February 2021 a large iceberg - Iceberg A74 - calved off

In January 2023 a second iceberg - Iceberg A81 - broke away

The combined area of these icebergs is approximately 3000 km2

This is roughly the size of Luxemburg or Rhode Island

Latest Sentinel-1 Image & Timeseries

Brunt Ice Shelf (image [3.5 MB], timeseries [440 MB])
McDonald Ice Rumples (image [1.7 MB], timeseries [230 MB])

Journal Articles

Automatic delineation of cracks with Sentinel-1 interferometry for monitoring ice shelf damage and calving [2022]
Calving cycle of the Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica, driven by changes in ice-shelf geometry [2019]
Recent rift formation and impact on the structural integrity of the Brunt Ice Shelf, East Antarctica [2018]
Five decades of strong temporal variability in the flow of Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica [2017]

Related Stories

Five decades of strong temporal variability in the flow of Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica

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ENVEO [Jan Wuite]


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