This tracking beacon was placed on Petermann Glacier in 2023 in anticipation that it would calve in the future. The beacon started moving suddenly (78 m to the east in one hour) on August 3, 2026 between 19:00 and 20:00 UTC, indicating the start of the calving event.
The tracking beacon records a position (and other information) hourly and send this over satellite every 3 hours (zoom way in and mouse-over the markers to see the last 12 records). The last position is marked with a yellow circle. The position just prior to the calving is marked in cyan.
In summer, the background image is a true colour mosaic of MODIS imagery from yesterday, courtesy of NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS). The coastline is in red (GSHHG).
The beacon belongs to Derek Mueller (WIRL, Carleton University, Canada) and Anna Crawford (Biological and Environmental Studies at The University of Stirling, UK) and was made by Adam Garbo, when he was at Carleton. It was deployed by Benoit Lauzon and Pénélope Gervais (LCR, University of Ottawa, Canada). A special thanks to Amundsen Science for logistics support.