July 16, 2015JPEG
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this image of sea ice swirling along the eastern coast of Greenland on July 16, 2015. The swirls of ice are caused by winds and currents that steer the ice on the sea.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Adam Voiland.
Summer brought melting swirls of sea ice to the southeastern coast of Greenland.
Water Snow and Ice Sea and Lake Ice
A combination of winds and currents steered sea ice into interlocking swirls.
Sea ice and glacial ice mixes off the northeast coast of the great island.
Thin sea ice swirled along the east coast of Greenland in October 2012, against a backdrop of overall thinning sea ice.
In April 2016, unusually warm temperatures and heavy winds broke the sea ice pack to pieces.