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Images of Antarctic Ice Shelves




Antarctic Ice Shelf Image Archive

Changes in the extent and stability of Antarctic ice shelves prompted NSIDC to begin a monitoring program of the major ice streams and outlet glaciers along the Antarctic coast. This archive spans back to the late 1980s. We began by using data from the AVHRR Polar 1 km data set and in 2001 switched to MODIS Level-1B data. Most of the Antarctic coastline is being monitored year round. This archive is a selected subset of scenes, generally the clearest and most informative scenes available.

Click on either the AVHRR or the MODIS image below to search the image archive.

Note: The AVHRR archive contains MODIS data prior to June 2009.

AVHRR Archive/MODIS October 1992 - June 2009

AVHRR Larsen B

MODIS image Archive March 2000 - Present

MODIS Larsen B

Citing these Data

These data are offered free of charge. You may use these data freely, provided that you cite NSIDC as the source, and provide an acknowledgment in any published papers.

The following example shows how to cite the use of this data set in a publication. List the principal investigators, year of data set release, data set title, indicate subset used (for example, March to June 2004), publisher: NSIDC, and DOI.

Scambos, T., J. Bohlander, and B. Raup. 1996. Images of Antarctic Ice Shelves. [indicate subset used]. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center.. http://dx.doi.org/10.7265/N5NC5Z4N.

For more information on this data set contact NSIDC User Services.