ICESat-2 Reveals Profile of Ice Sheets, Sea Ice, Forests

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ICESat-2 Reveals Profile of Ice Sheets, Sea Ice, Forests

 

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Dec. 11, 2018

ICESat-2 Reveals Profile of Ice Sheets, Sea Ice, Forests

Less than three months into its mission, NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, is already exceeding scientists’ expectations. The satellite is measuring the height of sea ice to within an inch, tracing the terrain of previously unmapped Antarctic valleys, surveying remote ice sheets, and peering through forest canopies and shallow coastal waters.

 

With each pass of the ICESat-2 satellite, the mission is adding to datasets tracking Earth’s rapidly changing ice. Researchers are ready to use the information to study sea level rise resulting from melting ice sheets and glaciers, and to improve sea ice and climate forecasts.

 

“ICESat-2 is going to be a fantastic tool for research and discovery, both for cryospheric sciences and other disciplines,” said Tom Neumann, ICESat-2 project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

 

Neumann and others with ICESat-2’s science team shared the first look at the satellite’s findings at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

 

..snipped, pics, graphs, rest of text via above URL

[pantheory]

27 minutes ago, SkipNChurch said:

 

 

ICESat-2 Reveals Profile of Ice Sheets, Sea Ice, Forests

 

..snipped, pics, graphs, rest of text via above URL

 

Great, it looks like they will have a better handle on changes in the glacial holdings of Antarctica over time. We have ample evidence that the Arctic ice is becoming ever scarse during the northern hemispheres summer. Evidence concerning the south pole have been conflicting since our past abilities to monitor it have been somewhat lacking. ICESat-2 might be a big improvement. In past geologic times when one pole melts more than normal the other freezes more than normal. In global warming periods both poles can defrost to a much greater extent, and in glaciation periods both poles can freeze over to a much greater extent. We know that presently the south pole is not defrosting as much in southern summers as much as the north pole. Some have questioned whether the south pole is defrosting at all. Of course there are climate variations from year to year at both poles.

 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/nasa-study-mass-gains-of-antarctic-ice-sheet-greater-than-losses

 

So if we are going to get the best picture of the extent of global warming effects we need to monitor the south pole more closely. This satellite will  seemingly help us in our quest to make the best economic decisions concerning our response to global warming warnings.

 

[older]

All this tech is wonderful. We'll be able to watch our species become extinct in great detail and in real time and then be able to share our demise on FB and Twitter.

[Geezer]

9 hours ago, older said:

All this tech is wonderful. We'll be able to watch our species become extinct in great detail and in real time and then be able to share our demise on FB and Twitter.

 

Yes, but millions of years from now humanoids will argue and debate whether our advanced civilization ever existed. We will become their Atlantis.