Icy images: Antarctica will amaze you in incredible aerial views

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Earth's chilly bottom

Amazing Antarctica

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty)

Sea ice and glaciers

Amazing Antarctica

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty)

The November flight took researchers above sea ice in Western Antarctica, including the Bellingshausen and Weddell seas and glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula and along the English and Bryan Coasts.

Rising sea levels

Amazing Antarctica

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty)

Researchers using IceBridge data have found that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may be in a state of irreversible decline, something that could directly contribute to rising sea levels.

Green laser pulses

Amazing Antarctica

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty)

The main instrument aboard the P-3 was a laser altimeter, which measures the height of the ice surface, according to NASA. The scientists used a green laser and a dual-color one to transmit both infrared and green laser pulses.

Antarctic measurements

Amazing Antarctica

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty)

Onboard radar sounders measured thickness and layering of the snow and ice; a high-resolution camera captured images of the terrain; and an infrared camera to measure surface temperature.

Magnetic measurements

Amazing Antarctica

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty)

The plane also carries a gravimeter and magnetometer to record tiny variations in Earth's gravity and magnetic fields, respectively, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. The magnetic properties of the bedrock beneath the floating ice shelves and glaciers tell scientists what type of rock is present there.

Feeling the heat

Amazing Antarctica

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty)

The virtually uninhabited landmass is feeling the heat of climate change…

Amazing Antarctica

Amazing Antarctica

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty)

The National Climate Assessment, a study produced every four years by scientists from 13 federal government agencies, released a stark report Nov. 2, 2017, stating that the global temperature rise over the past 115 years has been primarily caused by "human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases."

Artistic views

Amazing Antarctica

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty)

Sea-ice floes in Antarctica create fascinating patterns and hues when viewed from above.

Polar window

Amazing Antarctica

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty)

A view from a window in the research craft gives scientists a view of the expansive continent.

Icy desert

Amazing Antarctica

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty)

Though Antarctica is covered in snow and ice and the coldest place on Earth, it is actually a desert: It rarely rains or snows. The snow that does fall doesn't melt and instead builds up into thick ice sheets.

Jeanna Bryner
Managing editor, Scientific American

Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Bryner has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.