The embedded view above shows a series of false-color corrected reflectance images of iceberg A23a in the Southern Ocean, Antarctica. Press "Play" in the lower left corner of the embedded map to watch iceberg A23a move through the Southern Ocean.
The animation starts with the massive iceberg (approximately 1,500 square miles in area, or about the size of the U.S. state of Rhode Island) just to the right of center. During the animation (November 12, 2023, to February 27, 2024), the iceberg slowly drifts left toward the center of the image, then moves toward the top of the image. The false-color (Bands 7-2-1) corrected reflectance images are from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite.
Iceberg A23a calved from the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf (on the northwestern side of Antarctica) in 1986 and had been stuck in the Weddell Sea off the coast of West Antarctica until it started moving again in 2020. When it calved, the iceberg was one of the largest icebergs in the world until it was temporarily surpassed in size by iceberg A76 (which had an area of 1,670 square miles when it calved from the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf in 2021, but has since split into three fragments).
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MODIS Corrected Reflectance Datasets:
- MOD02QKM (doi:10.5067/MODIS/MOD02QKM.061)
- MOD02HKM (doi:10.5067/MODIS/MOD02HKM.061)
- MOD021KM (doi:10.5067/MODIS/MOD021KM.061)
- MYD02QKM (doi:10.5067/MODIS/MYD02QKM.061)