February 17, 2006, Washington, DC. -- Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) alerted the National Ice Center (NIC) that he and a colleague had spotted a newly calved iceberg from the Larsen Ice Shelf (Figure 1) during an over flight on Saturday Feb 11, 2006. The Larsen Ice Shelf is a large sheet of glacial ice and snow extending along the eastern portion of the Palmer Peninsula, within the westernmost portion of the Weddell Sea. The new iceberg, named A-54, is centered at 65.44S 61.29W. Iceberg A-54 measures 25 nautical miles on its longest axis and 13 nautical miles on its widest axis. NIC confirmed the calving of the iceberg using NASA’s visible MODIS imagery from the Terra satellite and visible imagery from the Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Meteorological Satellites Program (DMSP) Operational Line Scan (OLS) sensor.

Iceberg names are derived from the Antarctic quadrant in which they were originally sighted. The quadrants are divided counter-clockwise in the following manner:

A = 0-90W (Bellinghausen/Weddell Sea)
B = 90W-180 (Amundsen/Eastern Ross Sea)
C = 180-90E (Western Ross Sea/Wilkesland)
D = 90E-0 (Amery/Eastern Weddell Sea)

When first sighted, an iceberg’s point of origin is documented by the NIC. The letter of the quadrant, along with a sequential number, is assigned to the iceberg. For example, A-53 is sequentially the 53rd iceberg tracked by the NIC in Antarctica between 0-90W (Quadrant A).

The National Ice Center is a tri-agency operational center represented by the United States Navy (Department of Defense), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Department of Commerce), and the United States Coast Guard (Department of Homeland Security). The National Ice Center mission is to provide worldwide operational ice analyses for the armed forces of the United States and allied nations, U.S. government agencies, and the private sector.

For more information, please contact:
National Ice Center
Naval Ice Center
Liaison Branch
Voice: 301-394-3100
E-mail: liaison@natice.noaa.gov