Warm ocean currents attacking the underside of ice glaciers are the main cause of recent ice loss from Antarctica, a new study using measurements from NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) revealed. The report says the two main causes of the ice melting is warm ocean currents thawing under the ice, and warm air melting them from above. Twenty out of the Fifty-two glaciers being studied, are melting due to warm ocean currents. Most melting occurs in West Antarctica where glaciers flow down the coast and contribute to sea-level rise. ICESat was the first satellite specifically designed to use laser altimetry to study the Earth's polar regions. It was in space from 2003 until 2009 and a new one called ICESat-2, will be launched in 2016. Studies have shown Antarctic winds have changed due to the change in climate. Changing melting patterns can be attributed to changing wind patterns.
It is very cool that we have the technology to put satellites in space to measure wind patterns, and see where the glaciers are melting from. I think this could silence a lot of non-believers of global warming. It could also tell us exactly why global warming is happening in the first place. If we can use this technology for years to come it will solve many problems.
Interesting - if you read the article posted right after yours you'll read Preston writing about how those satellites are being underfunded and underprioritized in our Congressional budget.
ReplyDeleteYour right Alex, it is very cool that we have this technology. Now that we know that this is happening, what is something we can do about it? What do we have to change to lower the temperature from both the oceans and air?
ReplyDeleteThis kind of technology is very interesting, i wonder what it could lead to next. This technology will be a great help in the understanding of global warming and hopefully get some of the non believers to actually take it seriously. I would like to see how the ICESat-2 works out in 2016.
ReplyDeleteIn something related to this topic, there have been debates on which country can claim the recently revealed ocean that these melted glaciers used to cover.
ReplyDeleteThis is just another use for the satellites that aren't being funded as well as they used to be, which I talked about in my post, like Mrs. Ahrens pointed out.