Publié le 24 juin 2021
At the end of April, an iceberg with its longest axis of about 7.3 nm had been observed by Copernicus Sentinel-1 as it approached eastwards through the Scotia Sea, towards Saunders Island in the Southern Atlantic Ocean.
The drift of the iceberg was tracked since then, showing a rather surprising course. Both SAR and optical sensor images have presented interesting oceanographic and atmospheric phenomena, offering synchronous information over such large areas, which would not have been achieved by normal spot observations/measurements.
On 10 May, this same iceberg was spotted again by the Sentinel-1 satellites of the European Union’s Copernicus Programme, as shown in the following image. Furthermore, the image provides insight on oceanographic waves.
Copernicus Sentinel-1 catches effect of internal waves on 10 May
The iceberg was drifting about 50 km east of Candlemas Island. East of each of the South Sandwich Islands wavelike patterns were clearly visible. The patterns are created by the islands as obstacles for the currents and are the projection of relevant internal waves within the sub-surface layer of the ocean towards the sea surface.