NASA Tracking Polar Ice Sheets
NASA Tracking Polar Ice Sheets
NASA, the government agency most Americans associate with space travel and related sciences, is reportedly involved in science here on Earth. The agency has several dozen scientists traversing the western coast of Antarctica measuring sea ice and glaciers in an attempt to measure the potential impact of melting ice on the planet.
A DC-8 carrying a pack of scientists and seven complex instruments has been making regular flights along Antarctica's west coast since October 26th, as weather allows. Departing from a base in Punta Arenas, Chile, the mission is hopeful of completing 11 or 12 flights before the mission ends on Sunday.
The research is all part of Operation IceBridge, a six-year mission that NASA officials refer to as "the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown." The mission is currently in its second year, having spent the first year surveying ice shelfs at the other end of the planet, the Arctic. The mission is intended to obtain information lost when a NASA satellite stopped collecting data in 2009, as a replacement satellite won't go into operation until 2015.
Critics call the operation a tremendous waste of funds, saying NASA should just wait until the new satellite goes into operation to resume collecting data. But scientists insist that continuous data over a number of years will be vital to making accurate conclusions, and point out that parts of western Antarctica are rapidly changing areas, and there would be a lot of data not collected should NASA stall the project until 2015.
NASA, the government agency most Americans associate with space travel and related sciences, is reportedly involved in science here on Earth. The agency has several dozen scientists traversing the western coast of Antarctica measuring sea ice and glaciers in an attempt to measure the potential impact of melting ice on the planet.
A DC-8 carrying a pack of scientists and seven complex instruments has been making regular flights along Antarctica's west coast since October 26th, as weather allows. Departing from a base in Punta Arenas, Chile, the mission is hopeful of completing 11 or 12 flights before the mission ends on Sunday.
The research is all part of Operation IceBridge, a six-year mission that NASA officials refer to as "the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown." The mission is currently in its second year, having spent the first year surveying ice shelfs at the other end of the planet, the Arctic. The mission is intended to obtain information lost when a NASA satellite stopped collecting data in 2009, as a replacement satellite won't go into operation until 2015.
Critics call the operation a tremendous waste of funds, saying NASA should just wait until the new satellite goes into operation to resume collecting data. But scientists insist that continuous data over a number of years will be vital to making accurate conclusions, and point out that parts of western Antarctica are rapidly changing areas, and there would be a lot of data not collected should NASA stall the project until 2015.
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