(ORDO NEWS) — A68a, one of the largest icebergs, melted a few months ago. And so, quite recently, in the west of the Ronne Glacier, which lies in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica, a giant iceberg broke away.
It has already been named A-76 and is the absolute record holder in size today. Its area is approximately 4320 sq. Km. It was discovered thanks to the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission. This is reported by the European Space Agency.
The length of the A-76 is 170 km and the width is 25 km. The size of the breakaway ice floe is larger than the island of Mallorca.
Prior to that, Iceberg A-23A with an area of 3880 sq. Km was considered the largest. This giant was discovered by the British Arctic Survey, and the discovery was confirmed at the US National Ice Center.
The Sentinel -1 mission includes two satellites in polar orbit. They make synthetic aperture C-band radar images. Then the satellites send the images to the Earth 24/7.
Therefore, scientists can observe the processes that take place there all year round.
All icebergs get these names for a reason. They are named according to the quadrant in which they were spotted. Further, if the iceberg cracks, a sequential letter is added to the name.
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