NASA satellite will collect information on melting in Greenland and Antarctica. It is expected that the collected data will serve to reduce the uncertainty in the predictions about the increase in sea levels. Measurements will be made following the movements of the Earth.
By José Díaz
Servindi, September 26th, 2018.- One of the main reasons for climate change that has been occurring in recent years is undoubtedly the accelerated thawing process that occurs in the two poles of the Earth. It is for this reason that NASA has decided to make a heavy investment in the monitoring of ice on the globe after putting into orbit a satellite that will be responsible for this task.
It is the ICESat-2 satellite that took off a few days ago from one of NASA's space bases in California (United States). The objective of this device will be to measure the annual elevation of the ice on land in Greenland and the Antarctic continent. This satellite also has a technology that allows it to perform up to 60 thousand measurements per minute.
"The new observational technologies of ICESat-2, (are) an essential recommendation of the scientific community in the first study of decade of Earth science of NASA. It will also boost our understanding of how the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets contribute to raising sea levels," said Michael Freilich, director of NASA's Science Mission.
The system that the ICESat-2 satellite will use will follow the displacements of the earth. Initially it is expected to perform four annual surveys of the polar regions. The goal will be to reduce the uncertainty in future predictions about rising sea levels and the factors that influence on climate change.
Deicing worries
In recent years, glacial melting has become one of the main concerns for the scientific community. This has led some sectors to propose the construction of large infrastructures that seek resist the release of ice and thus avoid or slow the rise in sea levels.
One of the most recent proposals was published in the magazine The Cry-osphere where a group of scientists exposed the idea of building large dams that hold the ice and prevent the rupture of the ice caps. The scientists who created this idea hope to be able to test this initiative in Greenland, one of the areas that has resisted greater thaws in recent years.
And as if the situation was not worrisome enough, a recent investigation by the University of Alberta revealed that the permafrost - the permanent ice sheet - located on Canadian territory has melted faster than calculated. This could bring an increase of 0.2 ° Celsius to global warming, according to scientific estimates.
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