Amundsen Coast

NASA has now wrapped up its fall mission to Antartica to collect data on ice sheets and sheet ice as scientists seek a better understanding of how melting in that region could affect sea levels around the world. In this undertaking, NASA was emphasizing the aeronautics part of its name--the overflights were done not by a satellite or the Space Shuttle, but by a DC-8 jetliner that had once been in commercial service. The flights in October and November were part of the six-year Operation Ice Bridge, which is studying both of Earth's polar regions.

The image here is of the ice shelf extending over the Amundsen Sea, taken during the fall campaign's first flight on October 16. It was taken by the DC-8's downward-looking Digital Mapping System camera.