Two images of Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica show the recently discovered 25-kilometer-long (15-mile) crack that scientists expect will turn into a large iceberg within the next 18 months. The views from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) also reveal differences in the ice sheet's surface texture, highlighting surface fractures and enabling distinction of rough crevasses from smooth blue ice.
The images are available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/?search=&category=Earth#submit.
More information about the discovery of the Pine Island crack can be found in a NASA press release at ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2001/01-050.txt .
MISR, built and managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is one of several Earth-observing experiments aboard NASA's Terra satellite, which was launched in December 1999. MISR acquires images of the Earth at nine angles simultaneously, using nine separate cameras pointed forward, downward, and backward along its flight path. More information about MISR is available at http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov .
The MISR team updates the images on the Web site every week and invites the public to make suggestions by e-mail at suggestions@mail-misr.jpl.nasa.gov.
JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.