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Grace Satellite shows ice loss in East Antarctica
by Ishita Sood - November 23, 2009 - comments
Loss of ice in East Antarctica warns scientists of rising sea level in the coming years
New York, November 23 -- According to a recent study by scientists at the University of Texas, East Antarctica’s ice has started melting at a faster rate since 2006 which could do some serious destruction to the sea level.
The scientists have reported the findings in the journal "Nature Geoscience". They themselves are "surprised" because the East Antarctic sheet was thought to be more stable compared to the western one.
All data has been collected from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) mission, which had earlier reported the western sheet to be losing mass.
Eastern Antarctica’s loss mounting since 2006
The Grace report tells that there was no net ice loss between 2002 and 2006. But post 2006, East Antarctica has lost 57 billion tonnes (Gt) per year. The loss is however trivial as compared to Western Antarctica, which has lost 132Gt per year.
However, recent analysis now shows the annual figure to be 273Gt! Also, it is not clear as to why there has been so much mass loss over the years.
"We felt surprised to see this change in East Antarctica," said Jianli Chen, a study leader from the University of Texas.
He also told that one of his team was currently conducting airborne surveys. Those twin Grace satellites stay close together detecting minute changes in Earth's gravity through the marginal changes.
Loss in species and forest cover
Climatic changes have caused lot of havoc worldwide and despite serious warnings, conditions are getting worse. Mountain glaciers in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa are also shrinking at a rapid pace. The world's oceans have risen by about an inch and a half causing damage making the temperatures rise in the past decade by 0.4 degree
Various species like polar bear, butterflies, frogs and pine forests are now in trouble due to climatic factors.
“It's easy to jump to the conclusion that it's exceptional because it's the first time we've recorded it, but we do need a baseline of how things have been in the past so we do need to be cautious," said Leigh Stearns, a researcher at the University of Kansas.
"Nevertheless, it awakens us to the fact that the East Antarctic sheet is more dynamic than we thought, and we do need to pay attention to it because its potential for sea level rise is so much greater than in West Antarctica or Greenland,” he said.