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NASA Mission Monitors Polar Ice

Antarctica jet filling in for dying satellite

By John Johnson,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 30, 2009 1:02 PM CDT

(Newser) – NASA has begun a mission much closer to home than usual. The agency is flying a DC-8 over Antarctica to track melting glaciers and any subsequent rise in sea levels. Operation Ice Bridge is designed to buttress the work of a fading satellite, ICESat, which is just about spent after 7 years of service. Its replacement won't be in orbit until 2015 at the earliest, reports NPR.

"It seems important to keep an eye on these regions," says the project's lead scientist. "We wouldn't want to wake up in five or six years and have an oh-my-God moment." Although a jet can't cover as much ground as a satellite, its radar can provide more detailed information on what it does detect. One of the main trouble spots it's watching is Pine Island, where a glacier is sliding into the Amundsen Sea.

This 2003 handout photo provided by the British Antarctic Survey shows a glacier meeting the ocean at Marguerite Bay, Antarctic Peninsula.
This 2003 handout photo provided by the British Antarctic Survey shows a glacier meeting the ocean at Marguerite Bay, Antarctic Peninsula.   (AP Photo/British Antarctic Survey, Chris Gilbert)
Icebergs in Antarctica in a 2007 file photo.
Icebergs in Antarctica in a 2007 file photo.   (AP Photo/Roberto Candia, file)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 6 comments
lindamae
Oct 31, 2009 5:31 AM CDT
I wonder if Jim Hansen is in charge of this? I still question his gift of $750,000 from George Soros and $250,000 from John Kerry's wife's foundation - I think it is Tides - to help Jim with the perils of his stand. Amazingly, there are thousands who think Hansen's computer model was flawed and should not be the basis for cap and trade. But then, Soros and the rest can really use the tax money. Plus, it will bring us back to the dark ages. The weather has and will always cycle. Read the articles from the 1970's in which we were told of the coming Ice Age. Some of the same "scientists" swore it was true then and ironically they now claim it is true now that we are experiencing GW. They think we are morons.
Riffran
Oct 31, 2009 4:52 AM CDT
oh darn..no cryogenic reverse hurricanes like in "the day after"....dang it...lol.
my-name-here
Oct 30, 2009 8:39 AM CDT
@Joe you're right about the melting Arctic ice itself not equating to higher sea levels, much like ice in a glass will not raise the level of water as it melts, but the lack of that ice will cease the cooling effect in our atmosphere that it provides, apparently leading to accelerated melting of ice in Greenland and Antarctica, not to mention glaciers and the thawing of perma-frost releasing additional carbon dioxide into the atomsphere warming it further still.

 
climate change • NASA • global warming • sea level • Antarctica • satellite • glacier • polar ice caps

 
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