EarthWatch: Sea Ice in the Denmark Strait
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Ice that originated in the Arctic Ocean drifts hundreds of miles south, pulled along and shaped by the East Greenland Current.
Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with the NASA Earth Observatory: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
- NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/146974/sea-ice-in-denmark-strait
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Text, Earth Watch, Exploring the blue planet by satellite. Earth Observatory. Earth Observatory dot nasa dot gov. Operational Land Imager, Landsat 8 satellite.
Sea Ice in the Denmark Strait.
July 2, 2020. Since Arctic sea ice is penned in by major land masses, it rarely escapes before it melts. An arrow points to sea ice in the east. Text, The ice shown in this satellite image, however, has traveled through a narrow passage and drifted more than 1,000 kilometers, 600 miles from the Arctic Ocean.
This ice, which was already in the process of melting, was carried south toward the southern tip of Greenland. Greenland is labeled to the west of the sea ice. The Denmark Straight surrounds the sea ice on its eastern side.
Text, The current in the Denmark Strait is unstable and meandering, causing water eddies to form near the ice. White swirls of ice intermix with the deep blue strait waters.
Text, These water eddies can deform the edge of the sea ice and create swirling patterns in the water.
This satellite image helps trace how some fresh water from the Arctic ends up in the Nordic seas.
To learn more, go to earth observatory dot nasa dot gov.