Suggested Searches

1 min read

Ice Surge in Barrow, Alaska

Instruments:
2006-01-24 00:00:00
January 24, 2006

Like a frozen tsunami, large blocks of sea ice crashed ashore in the town of Barrow, Alaska, on January 23 and 24, 2006, according to a report from the Associated Press. Driven by fierce Arctic winds and strong eastward currents, the ice surged ashore in “car-sized blocks.” This pair of radar images of northern Alaska on January 1 and 24, 2006, shows the movement of the sea ice southward and onto the shore at Point Barrow. The observations were collected by a radar on NASA’s QuikSCAT satellite. On January 1, a thin strip of open water (dark area) separates the sea ice (across the top of the images) from the Alaska coast. By January 24, the sea ice had moved south and east, closing the small gap and climbing onto shore. The animations are based on daily images from January 1-30, 2006.

References & Resources

Images provided by Dr. David Long, Brigham Young University Center for Remote Sensing.

You may also be interested in:

Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet.

A Changing World for Emperor Penguins
7 min read

Experts are analyzing decades of images from Landsat satellites for clues about how the iconic birds have responded to sea…

Article
Pink Penguin Guano Provides Diet Clues
3 min read

The color of Adélie penguin droppings reveals what the birds are eating, offering scientists a way to track how sea…

Article
Signs of Thaw in the Bering Sea
3 min read

Drifting sea ice fragments near Alaska’s Saint Lawrence and Nunivak islands and colorful water around the Yukon Delta heralded the…

Article