NASA
Global Climate Change
Vital Signs of the Planet
Skip Navigation
menu close modal

MULTIMEDIA

Icy Bay, Alaska

Icy Bay, Alaska

From NASA's Operation IceBridge campaign in Alaska: A high altitude view of Icy Bay, in the Wrangell-Saint Elias Wilderness. Just a century ago, this body of water was covered in ice.

Credit

NASA ICE Twitter Feed

Enlarge

Downloads

2048x1536
762 KB
image/jpeg
Download

More Like This

  • Images
  • Oceans and ice

Related

This visualization shows total sea level change between 1992 and 2019, based on data collected from the TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, Jason-2, and Jason-3 satellites.
More
Video: 27-Year Sea Level Rise
Video: 27-Year Sea Level Rise
Video: Images created from GRACE data showing changes in Antarctic ice mass since 2002.
More
Antarctic ice loss 2002-2016
Video: Antarctic ice loss 2002-2016
This simulated natural color image shows the Coco River, between Nicaragua and Honduras, as seen from space on December 5, 2002. As it makes its way to the Caribbean Sea, the Coco River forms the border between the two countries. The coastline, known as the Mosquito Coast, is of low relief and has plentiful water bodies, relic shorelines and high temperatures. Mosquito Coast derives its name from its principal inhabitants, the Miskito Indians, whose name was corrupted into Mosquito by European settlers. The Mosquito Indians, of whom there are several tribes, are short in stature and very dark-skinned. The first European settlement in the Mosquito country started in 1630, when agents of the English-chartered Providence Company established friendly relations with the local inhabitants. The image shown covers an area of 29 x 39 kilometers (18 x 24 miles).
More
This simulated natural colo...
Coco River, Nicaragua and Honduras
These are the Anti-Atlas Mountains, part of the Atlas Mountain range in southern Morocco, Africa. The region contains some of the world’s largest and most diverse mineral resources, most of which are still untouched. This image was acquired by the Landsat 7 satellite on June 22, 2001. This is a false-color composite image made using shortwave infrared, infrared and red wavelengths.
More
Atlas Mountains
Atlas Mountains
The Republic of Maldives is a country located in the Indian Ocean, southwest of India.
More
Republic of Maldives
Republic of Maldives
The past decade has been the hottest ever recorded since global temperature records began 150 years ago. This video discusses the impacts of the sun's energy, Earth's reflectance and greenhouse gasses on global warming.
More
The past decade has been th...
Video: Temperature Puzzle
How much do you know about glaciers and ice caps?
More
Test your knowledge of the ...
Quiz: Ice and glaciers
Captured onboard a NASA Operation IceBridge flight to survey glacier change in a warming world, this photograph shows a beach and stream in Russel Fjord, Alaska, near the terminus of Hubbard Glacier.
More
Beached bergs in Alaska
Beached bergs in Alaska
This animation compares sea surface salinity (saltiness) data from two NASA datasets from 2015 to 2017.
More
Animation: Sea Surface Sali...
Animation: Sea Surface Salinity (Saltiness) Comparison (2015-2017)
This simulated natural-color image shows the North and South Malosmadulu Atolls in the Maldives, an island republic in the northern Indian Ocean, southwest of India. The Maldives consists of a chain of almost 1200 small coral islands that are grouped into clusters of atolls. It is home to about a third of a million people. Arguably the lowest-lying country in the world, the average elevation is 1 meter (3.3 feet) above sea level. Waves triggered by the great tsunami of December 2004 spilled over sea walls to flood the capital with sandy water and then swept out just as suddenly. Residents fear this was a foreboding of disasters to come from sea level rise due to global warming. The image was taken on 22 December 2002, and covers an area of 51 x 90 kilometers (32 x 56 miles).
More
The Maldives
The Maldives
A series of rocky outcroppings are a prominent feature of this Sahara Desert landscape near the Terkezi Oasis in the country of Chad. This image was taken by the Landsat 7 satellite on October 22, 2000. It is a false-color composite image made using near infrared, green, and red wavelengths. The image has also been sharpened using the sensor's panchromatic band.
More
Terkezi Oasis
Terkezi Oasis
Animated GIF of the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite, scheduled to launch in November 2020.
More
Animated GIF: Sentinel-6 Mi...
Animated GIF: Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich
NASA explores. From its earliest days of sounding rockets and balloon-borne instruments, to Apollo and Hubble and missions to Mars. This mission of exploration has also always focused on our own corner of the universe, Earth - the home frontier. Earth is still the only planet we've ever been to, as this video explains.
More
NASA explores. From its ear...
Home Frontier
This image, taken on 4 July 2002, shows spiraling eddies known as von Karman vortices over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Such eddies form as air flows over and around objects in its path. In this case, these eddies were created when prevailing winds sweeping east across the northern Pacific Ocean encountered Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.
More
Extraordinary Eddies
Extraordinary eddies
The tongue of the Malaspina Glacier, the largest glacier in Alaska, fills most of this image. The Malaspina lies west of Yakutat Bay and covers 1,500 square miles (about 3,880 square kilometers). Image taken by Landsat 7 on August 31, 2000.
More
ALASKAN SHIMMERThe tongue o...
Alaskan shimmer
This photo, taken on 30 December 2010, shows the aft section of the International Space Station (ISS). It was taken by an Expedition 26 crew member from a window in the ISS Progress 40 supply vehicle docked to the Pirs Docking Compartment.
More
Aft view of Earth
Aft view of Earth
This interesting image shows the world’s largest glacier, Lambert Glacier in Antarctica, and icefall that flows into it. Ice flows like water, albeit much more slowly. Cracks can be seen in this icefall as it bends and twists on its slow descent 1300 feet (400 meters) to the glacier below. The image was taken by the Landsat-7 satellite on December 2, 2000 and is a false-color composite made from infrared, red and green wavelengths. The image has also been sharpened using the sensor’s panchromatic band.
More
Icefall
Icefall
This beautiful aerial photograph shows a multi-layered lenticular cloud hovering near Mount Discovery in Antarctica, a volcano about 70 kilometers (44 miles) southwest of McMurdo.
More
Antarctic Wonders
Antarctic wonders
Perhaps the most impressive of cloud formations, cumulonimbus (from the Latin for “pile” and “rain cloud”) clouds form due to vigorous convection (rising and overturning) of warm, moist and unstable air. Surface air is warmed by the sun-heated ground surface and rises; if sufficient atmospheric moisture is present, water droplets will condense as the air mass encounters cooler air at higher altitudes. The air mass itself also expands and cools as it rises due to decreasing atmospheric pressure, a process known as adiabatic cooling. This type of convection is common in tropical latitudes year-round and during the summer season at higher latitudes. As water in the rising air mass condenses and changes from a gas to a liquid state, it releases energy to its surroundings, further heating the surrounding air and leading to more convection and rising of the cloud mass to higher altitudes. This leads to the characteristic vertical “towers” associated with cumulonimbus clouds, an excellent example of which is visible in this astronaut photograph. If enough moisture is present to condense and heat the cloud mass through several convective cycles, a tower can rise to altitudes of approximately 10 kilometers at high latitudes and to 20 kilometers in the tropics before encountering a region of the atmosphere known as the tropopause—the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere. The tropopause is characterized by a strong temperature inversion. Beyond the tropopause, the air no longer gets colder as altitude increases. The tropopause halts further upward motion of the cloud mass. The cloud tops flatten and spread into an anvil shape, as illustrated by this astronaut photograph. The photo was taken from a viewpoint that was at an angle from the vertical, rather than looking straight down towards the Earth’s surface. The image, taken while the International Space Station was located over western Africa near the Senegal-Mali border, shows a fully formed anvil cloud with numerous smaller cumulonimbus towers rising near it. The high energy levels of these storm systems typically make them hazardous due to associated heavy precipitation, lightning, high wind speeds and possible tornadoes.
More
Cumulonimbus cloud over Africa
Cumulonimbus cloud over Africa
A space suit floats freely away from the International Space Station in a scene reminiscent of a sci-fi movie. But this time, no investigation is needed. The suit is actually the world's latest satellite and was launched on February 3, 2006. Dubbed SuitSat-1, the unneeded Russian Orlan spacesuit filled mostly with old clothes was fitted with a radio transmitter and released to orbit the Earth.
More
FLOATING FREE: A space suit...
Floating free
Track Earth's vital signs and fly along with NASA's Earth-observing satellites.
More
Eyes on the Earth
Interactive: Eyes on the Earth
Along Greenland's western coast, a small field of glaciers surrounds Baffin Bay. This image was acquired by the Landsat 7 satellite on September 3, 2000. It is a false-color composite image made using near-infrared, red and blue wavelengths. 
More
Baffin Bay, Greenland
Baffin Bay, Greenland
This movie shows the evolution of several regions of the Greenland Ice Sheet between 2008 and 2300 based on three different climate scenarios.
More
Greenland Ice Sheet: Three ...
Greenland Ice Sheet: Three Futures
Climate time machine interactive
More
Climate time machine intera...
Interactive: Climate time machine
The basics of sea level rise, expressed in everyday terms, and what it means for those on the coast.
More
Rising Tides: Understanding...
Rising Tides: Understanding Sea Level Rise
more resources

Explore

Interactives, galleries and apps

Images of Change

Images of Change

Explore a stunning gallery of before-and-after images of Earth from land and space that reveal our home planet in a state of flux.
More
Climate Time Machine

Climate Time Machine

Travel through Earth's recent climate history and see how increasing carbon dioxide, global temperature and sea ice have changed over time.
More
Eyes on the Earth

Eyes on the Earth

Track Earth's vital signs from space and fly along with NASA's Earth-observing satellites in an interactive 3D visualization.
More
Global Ice Viewer

Global Ice Viewer

Earth's ice cover is shrinking. See how climate change has affected glaciers, sea ice, and continental ice sheets.
More
more multimedia

Get the Newsletter

Stay Connected

Facts

    • Evidence
    • Causes
    • Effects
    • Scientific Consensus
    • What Is Climate Change?
    • Vital Signs
    • Extreme Weather
    • Questions (FAQ)

News

    • News and Features
    • Subscribe
    • Climate Newsletter Archive

Solutions

    • Earth Science in Action
    • Mitigation and Adaptation
    • Sustainability and Government Resources

Explore

    • Images of Change
    • Earth Minute Videos
    • Interactives
    • Beautiful Earth Gallery
    • Ask NASA Climate
    • Evidence for Earth's Past Climate

NASA Science

    • Science Mission Directorate
    • NASA Data Resources
    • Earth System Science
    • Earth Science Missions
    • History
    • People

More

    • For Media
    • For Educators
    • Multimedia
    • En español
    • For Kids
  • Feedback
  • |
  • Awards
  • |
  • Sitemap
  • |
  • Earth Observatory
  • |
  • SEA LEVEL CHANGE
  • |
  • Privacy
  • |
  • Climate Data Initiative
  • |
  • U.S. CLIMATE RESILIENCE TOOLKIT

This website is produced by the Earth Science Communications Team at

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory | California Institute of Technology

Site last updated: September 21, 2023