Recently, NASA has announced they
are about to launch their second study on glaciers and ice sheets effects on
sea level as they melt. This research plan by NASA is supposed to resolve the
differences in estimates on how fast glaciers are disappearing and contributing
to the rise in sea level. This study has found that glaciers outside of the
Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have lost an average of 571 trillion pounds
of mass every year during the six-year study period from 2003 to 2009. As the
glaciers and ice sheets melt, the ocean level rises 0.03 inches a year. “The
study help precisely constrain how much these glaciers as a whole are
contributing to sea level rises,” said Alex Gardner, Earth scientist at Clark
University in Massachusetts. The two satellites that recorded and compared data
of ground measurements and led to the estimation of the loss of glaciers in all
regions of the planet were NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite
(ICESat) and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE). Even though
ICESat stopped operating in 2009, NASA plans to schedule a launch for the
ICESat’s successor, ICESat-2 in 2016. Both this satellite and GRACE will
continue to operate in order to detect variations in Earth’s gravity field
resulting from changes in the planets mass distribution, including ice
displacements.
Most people believe that because
global glacier mass is small that it is something that doesn’t need to be
worried about. However, Tad Pfeffer, a glaciologist of the University of
Colorado, said, “But it’s like a little bucket with a huge hole in the bottom:
it may not last for very long, just a century or two, but while there’s ice in
those glaciers, it’s a major contributor to sea level rising”. Rising sea level
can contribute to an increased costal erosion, pollution, damage, flooding, disturbance
of organisms, and safety of humans. Although we will not be affected during our
own lifetime, those who will live after us will face many complications because
of the risen sea levels.
I found this article very
interesting because it had a combination of what we have been learning in class
and global warming, a topic that is discussed controversially by many people.
This article provided a lot of detailed and structured information about the
missions NASA has run in the past and those missions that are scheduled for the
future. However, I did have to do additional research on the long and short
term affects of a rising sea level. I felt this peace of information was
important to add so the people reading this could retain a full understanding
on how this topic is actually important. Life on Earth is at great risk all because
of melting glaciers and rising sea levels. Overall, I thought this article was
a good read and is great for students to research and find more information
about.
My classmate Briana did a very interesting review of the article “NASA Satellite Data Helps Pinpoint Glaciers’ Role in Sea Level Rise”. I thought she did a very good job of giving a good summary of the article and making it interesting. Briana did a good job of explaining what the different satellites were, and what the future plans of research are. I thought that she made this issue seem really important, and also related it well to her studies of Earth Science.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Briana made a very good review, there were a couple of suggestions that I would make to her. I thought that she could have given some more detailed information about the missions that NASA has run in the past and the ones scheduled in the future. Also, in her first sentence she should have apostrophes on glaciers and ice sheets.
I thought that this was a very interesting article, and I enjoyed reading it and Briana’s review of it. I thought the most interesting fact I learned from reading this was that rising sea levels can cause increased coastal erosion, pollution, damage, flooding, disturbance of organism, and can negatively affect the safety of humans.
Vivian Mroz May 23, 2013
ReplyDeleteESCI CE 5
My class mate Brianna wrote about a very interesting article with many fun facts that intrigued me. The first was how this study that has been set up has found that glaciers outside of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have lost an average of 571 trillion pounds of mass every year during the six-year study. The second one was the way they are taking down this data; though satellites, that is very outstanding they have two different satellites taking down data and are comparing it. Lastly the third one is about how all this research is funded by NASA and how they want to resolve the differences in estimates on how fast glaciers are disappearing and contributing to the rise in sea level. There were some things she could have fixed like how she could have introduced the article a little bit better. The second thing she could have done better was to add a little bit more of her opinion into the write up. I though she did a great job explaining the article she chose it was very alluring and I would love to read something like this again. However the one thing that stood out and that I never would have guessed was how rising sea level can contribute to an increased costal erosion, pollution, damage, flooding, disturbance of organisms, and safety of humans. Although we will not be affected during our own lifetime, those who will live after us will face many complications because of the risen sea levels.Overall she did a good job with this!!!