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As Above So Below
Mysterious Circles in Arctic Ocean Baffle NASA Scientis
On April 17th, NASA scientists released a photo bearing some rather peculiar details. The image, which displayed a frosty area of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean, was taken in coordination with NASA’s Operation IceBridge, a program which maps ice in the region on an annual basis, both on land and at sea.
However, visible within the satellite photo was also a series of unexplained holes in the ice which left some of the NASA mission scientists baffled.
The photo (see above) was procured by John Sonntag with Operation IceBridge, who reported on NASA’s Earth Observatory page. “We saw these sorta-circular features only for a few minutes today. I don’t recall seeing this sort of thing elsewhere.”
According to NASA’s statement, the unusual circular features “are more of a curiosity than anything else.”
Other scientists commented on the equally unusual “wave-like” formations that appeared near the holes in the photograph. Sea ice geophysicist Don Perovich of Dartmouth College said, “The ice is likely thin, soft, and mushy and somewhat pliable. This can be seen in the wave-like features in front of the middle ‘amoeba.’”
In Petrovich’s view, it could be that left-to-right motion that occurs when two floes of thin ice collide–a phenomenon called “finger rafting”–might partially explain some of the unusual features.
However, IceBridge project scientist Nathan Kurtz, while acknowledging the appearance of the finger rafting displayed in the photo, maintains that the circular features are anomalous. “I’m not sure what kind of dynamics could lead to the semi-circle shaped features surrounding the holes,” Kurtz was quoted saying. “I have never seen anything like that before.”
On April 17th, NASA scientists released a photo bearing some rather peculiar details. The image, which displayed a frosty area of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean, was taken in coordination with NASA’s Operation IceBridge, a program which maps ice in the region on an annual basis, both on land and at sea.
However, visible within the satellite photo was also a series of unexplained holes in the ice which left some of the NASA mission scientists baffled.
The photo (see above) was procured by John Sonntag with Operation IceBridge, who reported on NASA’s Earth Observatory page. “We saw these sorta-circular features only for a few minutes today. I don’t recall seeing this sort of thing elsewhere.”
According to NASA’s statement, the unusual circular features “are more of a curiosity than anything else.”
Other scientists commented on the equally unusual “wave-like” formations that appeared near the holes in the photograph. Sea ice geophysicist Don Perovich of Dartmouth College said, “The ice is likely thin, soft, and mushy and somewhat pliable. This can be seen in the wave-like features in front of the middle ‘amoeba.’”
In Petrovich’s view, it could be that left-to-right motion that occurs when two floes of thin ice collide–a phenomenon called “finger rafting”–might partially explain some of the unusual features.
However, IceBridge project scientist Nathan Kurtz, while acknowledging the appearance of the finger rafting displayed in the photo, maintains that the circular features are anomalous. “I’m not sure what kind of dynamics could lead to the semi-circle shaped features surrounding the holes,” Kurtz was quoted saying. “I have never seen anything like that before.”
