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Polar ice disappearing
| Adapted from article on www.news.bbc.co.uk 10
March 2006
Writing in the Journal of Glaciology, a US team says that 20 billion tonnes of water are added to oceans each year.
As in other studies, the survey documents extensive thinning of the West Antarctic ice shelves, but a thickening in the East of the continent. And it shows the interior of Greenland is gaining mass due to increased snowfall, but the edges are getting thinner. "A race is going on in Greenland between these competing
forces of snow build-up in the interior and ice loss on the edges,"
explained Dr Zwally of the US Space Agency (Nasa). ~~~oooOooo~~~ Below: adapted
from article on www.news.bbc.co.uk 15
March 2006 Beginning in March 2007, over 50,000 scientists from around the world will begin the most intensive period of research on the polar regions in half a century.
"If you want to understand the global carbon cycle, the global water cycle, the global weather cycle, or global economics, it requires an understanding of polar regions," said IPY's programme director, Dr David Carson. Proposals include new research into ice cores to further
knowledge of the Earth's climate one million years ago; mapping and modeling
of permafrost thawing; tracking reindeer herds as the climate alters;
looking at oil and gas development; and satellite observations. IPY will
also focus on indigenous communities.
|
There
is a net loss of ice to the ocean from the Greenland and Antarctic ice
sheets, studies based on satellite data have found.
International
Polar 'Year' (IPY) - which will actually last until March 2009 - aims
to provide a legacy of research into key environmental issues facing the
Earth. The last such initiative, in 1957, provided the foundation for
much of the polar science knowledge we have today. Fifty years on, IPY
hopes to build on this success.