Ocean of ponds

2011/07/26 Kortabitarte Egiguren, Irati - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Ozeanografia

Have you ever been to the Arctic? It's easy to imagine a uniform layer of ice, isn't it? However, the reality is different, especially in spring and summer. It becomes a landscape of white, blue, grayish and green areas.

As you can see in this photo taken on July 12, the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean looks like a Swiss cheese. When the ice melts, liquid water accumulates and internalizes in the surface depressions, resulting in fresh water wells.

NASA researchers study how this ice melts. And they collect water samples to study their chemistry and observe the plankton colony growing on it and on the ice sheet. However, image researchers are not collecting data, they are collecting some of the devices launched by an airplane.

Image courtesy of: ANDÉN