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[NASA] Signs of Thaw in the Bering Sea

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  3. Signs of Thaw in the Bering Sea
 


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natural color
false color

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Two large, partly snow-covered islands lie west of mainland Alaska. Sea ice fragments form swirling patterns in the ocean, and brown water lines part of the Alaskan coastline.
NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison

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A false-color satellite image shows two large islands west of mainland Alaska. Sea ice fragments appear light blue and form swirling patterns in the ocean. The land appears mostly light green, interrupted by many small ponds and a large river delta.
NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison
natural colorfalse color

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Two large, partly snow-covered islands lie west of mainland Alaska. Sea ice fragments form swirling patterns in the ocean, and brown water lines part of the Alaskan coastline.
NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison
This is the hidden content, please
A false-color satellite image shows two large islands west of mainland Alaska. Sea ice fragments appear light blue and form swirling patterns in the ocean. The land appears mostly light green, interrupted by many small ponds and a large river delta.
NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison

natural color

false color


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Image Details

Sea ice fragments drift near Alaska’s Saint Lawrence and Nunivak islands and colorful water surrounds the Yukon Delta in natural-color (left) and false-color (right) images acquired with the
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 (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s 
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 satellite on June 3, 2026. NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison.

When clouds parted in early June 2026, satellites glimpsed hints of summer’s approach in the Bering Sea off Alaska’s coast. Sea ice, broken into small fragments, took a few final spins on its way to melting completely, while rivers swollen with snowmelt washed sediment and organic material out to sea.

These images, acquired with the

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 (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s 
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 satellite on June 3, 2026, capture the seasonal transition. A false-color view of the area (right) brings out features of the landscape that are more subtle in the natural-color scene (left), as human eyes would see it. In false color, the tundra and marsh vegetation appear green, and ice-free rivers and
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are dark blue. Sea ice and snow, where they still linger, appear light blue.

Amid the seasonal phenomena playing out in the images stand Saint Lawrence and Nunivak islands. Both have

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and are among the largest islands in the United States. They contain extensive basaltic lava flows forming small
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, along with other features such as cinder cones and
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, or low-lying volcanic craters.

Saint Lawrence Island lies about 150 miles (240 kilometers) directly south of the

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, separating Alaska and the Russian Far East. It is one of the few pieces of the
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that connected Asia and North America during the Pleistocene that remain above water.
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persisted along the
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of the island in early June, while other sea ice drifted and curled into intricate patterns with the winds and currents. The smaller the ice fragments, the wispier their swirling patterns appear when observed by satellites.

Brownish water, likely containing a mixture of

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and
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, lines the coast of mainland Alaska. The colorful water appears to enter the sea around the
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, a vast wetland where the Yukon River branches into many circuitous channels.
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in this area typically increase starting in late May or early June. That’s after river ice has broken up and
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from rain and snowmelt carries eroded material downstream.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA 

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 and 
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. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

Downloads

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June 3, 2026: Natural color

JPEG (2.37 MB)

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June 3, 2026: False color

JPEG (2.56 MB)

References & Resources

  • Alaska Volcano Observatory,
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    . Accessed June 18, 2026.
  • Chikita, K. A., et al. (2021)
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    . Hydrology, 8(1), 45.
  • NASA Earth Observatory (2021, June 21)
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    . Accessed June 18, 2026.
  • NASA Earth Observatory (2008, February 14)
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    . Accessed June 18, 2026.
  • Patton, W.W., et al. (2011)
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    . U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3146.

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