The Antarctic island served as a winter base for polar explorers at the beginning of the 20th century. Argentina’s Antarctic islands, which are covered with a sheet of ice all year round, resemble winter even in summer. During the summer months, ice sheets can be seen on half of the total land area, although this figure is slightly higher on Winter Island, where the ice sheet covers approximately 70 percent of the land area.

Landsat 9 OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) acquired these images during the Southern Hemisphere summer on February 16, 2023. Wide angle (above) shows the position of the island group relative to the Kiev Peninsula, which protrudes from the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Summer provides enough daylight for satellites to obtain natural color images this far south. This is also the time when the sea ice around Antarctica melts and it becomes easier to distinguish the ice-covered islands from Bellingshausen’s dark blue sea. Days after these images were taken, sea ice around Antarctica reached its lowest level since satellite records began in 1979. The trend towards low ice levels continued throughout the winter, when the ice cover would grow much faster in the darkest and coldest months.

Before the advent of satellites, information about the region was obtained from polar explorers and researchers who personally visited the region. Winter Island takes its name from the British Graham Land Expedition (1934–1937), which used the island as a winter base in 1935. Taking advantage of the sea ice, the expedition team explored the area from the air with planes and from land with dog sleds. Travel along the coast. The expedition successfully mapped most of the coastline of Graham Land, the northern part of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Research efforts have since been transferred to nearby Galindez Island, where the Vernadskyi Ukrainian Research Base is now located. But visitors with a permit can still access Wordie House, a historic base on Winter Island. Visitors can also meet some of the area’s local residents, including Adélie and Ghent penguins.