March 15, 2023 - Iceberg A76A making its way north

Iceberg A76A making its way north
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On March 8, 2023, a break in widespread cloud cover allowed the
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s
Aqua satellite to acquire a true-color image of Iceberg A76A as it
drifts northward into warmer waters of the South Atlantic Ocean.

The iceberg’s parent berg (A76) broke from Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf
in May 2021. At the time, it was the largest iceberg anywhere on the
planet. Within a month, the iceberg lost that status when it broke into
three named pieces.

In October 2022, the largest piece—Iceberg A76A—was captured drifting
almost 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) away in the Drake Passage, a
turbulent body of water between South America’s Cape Horn and
Antarctica’s South Shetland Islands. By March 2023, A76A had exited the
northern reach of the Drake Passage, floating nearly even with the tip
of Cape Horn, which is located west and off of the left edge of the
image. The Falkland Islands, a South Atlantic archipelago that sits on
the Patagonian Shelf about 300 miles (480 km) east of South America,
can be seen under clouds to the northwest of Iceberg A76A.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 3/8/2023
Resolutions: 1km (1 MB), 500m (3.3 MB),
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-03-15

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