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May 1, 2020 by Cynthia Shahan
A new document has emerged with recent data from NASA that provides a picture of the rapidly melting ice in Antarctica.
Recent data is presented in an article published in the journal. Science on April 30, 2020. Space data provides more detailed images of Antarctic ice, how and where it is rapidly accumulating or melting.
The data answers any questions about where ice goes when it melts. The concern is that this could happen at an increasingly rapid rate, contributing to rising sea levels that threaten people, cities, and countries around the world.
Antarctic mass loss (2003–2019). (Above) Antarctic mass change. (Bottom) Mass changes in the ground line. The highest rates of mass loss are found in West Antarctica and Wilkes Land in East Antarctica. The change in mass of the map and the ground line has been smoothed with a 35 km median filter for better visualization.
The information will help researchers as they try to assimilate and understand the largest ice loss factor in Antarctica, the thinning of floating ice shelves that allows more ice to flow from the interior to the ocean. The study is the first to be published using ICESat-2 data. Many more studies are planned.
Many have documented, and researchers have known, that the continent is losing overall mass as the climate changes. The massive caving of glaciers continues in the north and has been documented by scientists and even featured in movies.
The data shows that the continent is gaining more ice in some areas, such as parts of East Antarctica. In other areas, it is losing ice, and more quickly. Rapid fusion is occurring in West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula.
East Antarctic ice growth is assumed to be due to additional precipitation in the region, which would coincide with the expected results of climate change. “While we cannot say that these changes are related to contemporary climate change, we can say that these are the patterns of change that we hope to see in a warming world,” said Ben Smith, author of the study and a glaciologist at the University. from Washington said.
the New York Times reports, “Helen A. Fricker, author of the article, said scientists have attempted to study the link between slimming racks and what is called crushed ice, but have been hampered because most observations were from an area or another, and they did At Different Times. “Now we have it all on the same map, which is really powerful,” said Dr. Fricker, a glaciologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. “
The Ice-Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, was launched in 2018. It is now an integral part of NASA’s Earth Observation System. the New York Times reports that it replaced a satellite that had provided data from 2003 to 2009. “ICESat-2 uses a laser altimeter, which shoots pulses of photons divided into six beams toward the Earth’s surface 300 miles below. Of the trillions of photons in each pulse, only a handful of the reflected ones are detected on the satellite. The extremely accurate measurement of the travel times of these photons provides surface elevation data with an accuracy of just a few inches. “
“‘It’s not like any instrument we’ve ever had in space before,’ said another author, Alex S. Gardner, a glaciologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The resolution is so high it can detect cracks and other small features of the ice surface, he said.
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About the Author
Cynthia Shahan Cynthia Shahan started writing after researching and publishing papers on natural childbirth practices. (Various unrelated publications) She is a licensed healthcare provider. He studied and practiced both Waldorf education and Montessori education, mother of four lovingly unconditional spirits, teachers and environmentally conscious beings born with spiritual and ethical ideas beyond this world. (He was able to advance further in this way led by his children.)
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