Wonders in the Antarctic Sky
In 43 hours across five science flights in late November 2013, NASA's P-3
research aircraft collected more than 20,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) worth of
science data. Instruments gathered information about the thickness of the ice
over subglacial lakes, mountains, coasts, and frozen seas. The flights over
Antarctica were part of Operation IceBridge, a multi-year mission to monitor
conditions in Antarctica and the Arctic until a new ice-monitoring satellite,
ICESat-2, launches in 2016.
Laser altimeter and radar data are the primary products of the mission, but
IceBridge project scientist Michael Studinger almost always has his digital
camera ready as well. On Nov. 24, 2013, he took this photograph of a
multi-layered lenticular cloud hovering near Mount Discovery, a volcano about 70
kilometers (44 miles) southwest of McMurdo Station on Antarctica’s Ross
Island.
Lenticular clouds are a type of wave cloud. They usually form when a layer of
air near the surface encounters a topographic barrier, gets pushed upward, and
flows over it as a series of atmospheric gravity waves. Lenticular clouds form
at the crest of the waves, where the air is coolest and water vapor is most
likely to condense into cloud droplets. The bulging sea ice in the foreground is
a pressure ridge, which formed when separate ice floes collided and piled up on
each other.
Image Credit: Michael Studinger
Caption: Adam Voiland
Caption: Adam Voiland
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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