The Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA) obtained the first satellite images sharp from the iceberg that came off last Sunday of the Antarctica, whose surface is equivalent to seven times the City of Buenos Aires. The iceberg is being monitored for prevent it from affecting the route of the icebreaker ARA Almirante Irízarwhich will set sail from Ushuaia to the white continent.
The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Daniel Filmusassured that the Argentine satellite development “not only provides us with key information that allows us, as in this case, to have updated data on the iceberg movement to successfully complete the second stage of the 2022/23 Summer Antarctic Campaign, but it is a fundamental piece to achieve a sovereign scientific-technological system”, according to a statement released this afternoon by the portfolio.
An iceberg 15 times bigger than Paris broke off from Antarctica
Is about two images that were taken by the Argentine satellite Saocom 1A from the National Commission for Space Activities (Conae): one of them was recorded on Monday at 2:00 p.m. and the second, which shows the furthest iceberg, was obtained yesterday.
“There are other images of the iceberg circulating, but they are optical and have clouds. Instead, This image taken by the Argentine radar-type satellite is sharper because the light is generated by the satellite itself, it sends out a radar signal, goes through the clouds, reaches the surface and comes back. The satellite can see through the clouds,” he explained to telam Sebastián Marinsek, head of the Department of Glaciology at the IAA.
The Saocom 1 mission, made up of two Earth observation satellites, Saocom 1A and 1B, equipped with L-band synthetic aperture radars, were developed and manufactured in different parts of Argentina by Conae together with the company Invap, the main contractor. for the project; the company VENG SA, the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) and the Applied Mechanical Testing Group (GEMA) of the National University of La Plata (UNLP), among 80 other technology companies and institutions of the country’s scientific and technological system.
According to Filmus, this mission became “a paradigmatic case” in terms of the goal set by the national government to recover “our National Space Plan.” Likewise, the official reaffirmed the need to claim sovereignty over the so-called Argentine Antarctic Sector that “is based, among other arguments, on the development of national scientific activity in Antarctica for more than a century.”
The risks of the iceberg
Marinsek warned that the danger posed by the iceberg is that it moves and it is a wall that is 40 meters high, 40 kilometers wide and 60 kilometers long. “If a ship encounters it head-on, it has to turn around or avoid it, that’s the problem; it’s a very large object of 1,500 square kilometers,” explained the scientist.
The glacier expert stated that the landslide “will not affect the Belgrano II Base in Argentina,” located 350 kilometers from the place, but clarified that “It is necessary to monitor when the Irízar icebreaker passes be at a safe distance.”
What is Argentina looking for in Antarctica?
“When the glacier is very large, the icebergs that break off are also large, so 1,500 square kilometers against 14 million is a small portion compared to Antarctica, it is important to put it in proportion,” he clarified.
In addition, Marinsek pointed out that it was a “natural” detachment linked to the cycle of the glaciers itself. “The landslide occurred due to natural causes and at the moment we have not detected fauna in the area, because in a few months that place freezes and the iceberg will remain trapped there with the frozen water, still until next year it thaws again. From the point of human life, it presents a navigation problem to consider“, he added.
Regarding the sea level, he assured that the iceberg will not affect it because “it was already floating before it broke off and it continues to do so” and “no matter how long it takes to melt, it is already in equilibrium with the sea.” Meanwhile, on a background of similar characteristics, he recalled that in 2017 an iceberg of 6,000 square kilometers broke off, and in 2021 another of 1,200 square kilometers.
This was Antarctica 40 million years ago
On Monday, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), an organization that investigates the polar regions, had reported that the block of ice broke away from the ice pack between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, after a strong tide widened a crack that already existed on the ice shelf.
This information was also confirmed by the seismic record at the BELA seismographic station, belonging to the Argentine-Italian Network of Antarctic Seismographs (Asain) that operates at the Belgrano II Base. It is a permanent network of high-sensitivity seismographs that has been operating in Antarctica since 1995.
RB/fl
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