NISAR Satellite Antarctica Image Reveals Hummingbird Pattern in Ice

In satellite data captured over Antarctica, what appears to be a beautiful, colorful hummingbird emerges from the crest of a mountaintop. The dark belly of this 'bird' at the center of this image is actually the top of the mountain Nunatak Zaterjavshijsja in East Antarctica. What looks like a bird's tail is a stream of ice flowing northeast all the way out to the ocean, and what appear to be feathers splaying outward from the mountaintop are actually crevasses down the mountain. These crevasses are formed by a glacier fracturing the mountain's surface as it flows in the icy current toward the ocean.

What the NISAR Satellite Antarctica Image Shows

This view was captured by radar instruments onboard the satellite NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) that launched as a collaboration between NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). The director of NASA's Earth Science Division called NISAR 'the most sophisticated radar we've ever built' in a pre-launch briefing last year. 'First, it's a beautiful image, with rich details of features that provide insights to how the glacier is moving. Then, because radar can often see through snow and deep into the ice, NISAR can observe fundamentally different properties of Antarctic ice than can be seen in optical imagery,' said Seongsu Jeong, a signal analysis engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who produced the image.

NASA said the data from Earth-orbiting US-India NISAR satellite's L-band radar was used to produce an image of Nunatak Zaterjavshijsja — a mountaintop in East Antarctica. The information can help researchers monitor the movement of land and ice, study forests and wetlands, and respond to natural hazards including earthquakes, landslides and floods. As the glacier moves around the mountain, the terrain places stress on the ice. Deep crevasses appear as sharp green lines in the radar image, while smoother ice surfaces appear magenta. Teams in India and the United States will continue releasing processed data from the satellite's L-band and S-band radar systems, NASA said.

The hummingbird pattern is a striking example of pareidolia — the human tendency to see familiar shapes in random patterns — but it also serves as a vivid demonstration of NISAR's ability to map ice dynamics in unprecedented detail. Unlike optical satellites that rely on sunlight and clear skies, radar can image through clouds and darkness, making it ideal for polar regions where weather and long nights limit traditional imaging. The L-band frequency used here is particularly effective at penetrating ice, allowing scientists to map sub-surface features like crevasses, ice layers, and even the bedrock beneath glaciers. This data is essential for building accurate models of ice sheet behavior and for monitoring changes over time.