Friday, January 08, 2010

Iceberg B17-B Adrift Off the Southwestern Coast of Australia




Icebergs frequently calve off Antarctica’s ice shelves, and they often get swept up in strong circumpolar currents that carry them around the icy continent. Occasionally icebergs drift northward, out of the continent’s orbit. Only rarely, however, do icebergs drift as far north as Australia without melting, which is why scientists were surprised to spot a city-sized iceberg, desginated B17-B, drifting toward Australia in December 2009.
Between early November and early December 2009, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites observed the iceberg’s movement, shown in these true-color images. The top image shows the iceberg on November 5. The middle image shows the iceberg on November 29. The bottom image shows the iceberg on December 11. The iceberg’s contours change over time, and smaller icebergs splinter off from the main one, especially in the two later images.
The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse reported that the iceberg shrank from roughly 54 square miles (140 square kilometers) to 44 square miles (115 square kilometers) over the course of one week and then broke into hundreds of pieces, many several kilometers long. B17-B was spotted some 1,054 miles (1,700 kilometers) off the south-southwestern Australian coast in mid-December 2009. In November 2009, New Zealand issued a shipping alert about iceberg B17-B.
http://ping.fm/rBNlf .. Heavy showers still over North East Srilanka coast.
Sat. Shot at 3pm IST, shows Showers along Central & North TN coast .. http://ping.fm/JX935
Chennai - Started as widespread sprinkles... now it's slowly turning into a steady drizzle .. This will gain strength after 5 pm.
http://ping.fm/RiOJV .. Heavy showers heading for Central Tamilnadu coast now 12:30pm
Sat. Shot at 11:30am IST, shows Very heavy showers along North-east Srilanka .. http://ping.fm/uEEg0
Chennai - Cloud cover getting very heavy.. and now 10:07am, rain has started sprinkling.
Chennai - Some zones received received mild drizzles around early hours.
Chennai - Low cloud formation should increase after 10 am and High possibility of showers towards evening and into Midnight today.
Chennai - A comparatively warm morning today.. with heavy cloud cover.
Satellite at 8am IST, shows medium cloud cover along north Tamilnadu coast.. http://ping.fm/AXI3V
Satellite at 8am IST, shows Heavy cloud formation & showers along Central Tamilnadu coast .. http://ping.fm/vApPF