A massive iceberg approaching record size, according to estimates, is peeling off of Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf and may soon be adrift in the Ross Sea. The iceberg is estimated to be 11,000 square kilometers in size, about twice the size of Delaware. According to Matthew Lazzara, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Antarctic Meteorological Research Center, the iceberg is about 295 kilometers in length and 37 kilometers wide. "This is a very big iceberg, close to a record if not a new record," said Lazzara. "It's not often that you see them of this magnitude."
Images of the iceberg from two polar orbiting satellites are available through the UW-Madison Antarctic Meteorological Research Center, a research center supported by the National Science Foundation and housed within the UW-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center. Images for news media can be obtained at the following url: http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/iceberg.html
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration polar orbiter as well as a polar orbiter of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program gathered the data for the images which were assembled at the UW-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center. Each satellite orbits the Earth, pole to pole, at an altitude of about 700 kilometers. Real-time satellite imagery can be obtained from the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center ( http://uwamrc.ssec.wisc.edu/amrc/iceberg.html )
For more information or access to imagery, contact Matthew Lazzara at (608) 262-0436, mattl@ssec.wisc.edu ; Terri Gregory, (608) 263-3373, terri.gregory@ssec.wisc.edu