The main Antarctic glacier appears to be “smoking” from a satellite view

(CNN) –– A vital glacier in West Antarctica appears to be smoking in a rare image taken by a NASA satellite earlier this month.

So-called “sea smoke” is not actually smoke but fog, appearing as cottony white wisps on the dark surface of ocean water where Pine Island Glacier meets the sea.

Water and wind were a primary factor in creating the marine smoke. A series of strong winds pushed the ice and cold water away, allowing the warm water to rise to the surface. According to NASA. The warm water injects warmer, more humid air into the exceptionally dry and cold air it sweeps through. The temperature shock caused the moisture in that air to condense and turn into fog.

From land, it would look as if someone turned on a creepy fog machine in a haunted house over the water. The area near the water’s surface becomes covered in a strange mist or smoke-like mist, hence the nickname.

Sea smoke itself is not uncommon: it can appear any time extremely dry and cold air passes over a warmer body of water. It is usually seen in the Great Lakes region when the first polar blast of winter passes over the still relatively warm lakes.

But seeing it on a satellite above Pine Island Glacier was strange because the area is usually covered in clouds. According to NASA.

Pine Island Glacier is a vital, closely monitored part of Antarctica that is threatened by global warming. The glacier acts as a pipeline to the massive ice sheet that borders it, sending a flow of ice into the adjacent ocean.

This flow has increased “drastically” since the 1990s, as the glacier has become unbalanced by warm air, water and a lack of snow, and is unable to recharge the ice. CNN reported earlier.

This area, along with the neighboring Thwaites Doomsday Glacier, has been losing ice at a rapid rate over the past few decades, and has the potential to raise sea levels a few meters on its own.

The glaciers also help prevent the collapse of the rest of the Antarctic ice sheet behind them, which contains enough ice to raise sea levels by a catastrophic 3 metres.