India Today
Here are some facts on how Antarctica is causing a global sea level rise and its connection with climate change.
Antarctica has been observed to go through the highest ice loss rate in past 25 years, resulting in global sea level raise.
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Antarctica has been observed to go through the highest ice loss rate in past 25 years, resulting in global sea level raise.
Since Antarctica is not a home to native human population, the United States and other 11 countries signed the Antarctic treaty in 1959 to ban military activities and invest into scientific investigations.
More than 40 other countries have joined the agreement since then, and the research station on the continent has grown rapidly.
Facts about Antarctica
Antarctica has been observed to go through the highest ice loss rate in past 25 years, resulting in global sea level raise.
Situated in the South Pole of earth, the average temperature of the place in winters is minus 34.4 Celsius.
The lowest temperature recorded was minus 144 F, which is the lowest temperature recorded in the world.
Antarctica has two seasons-- winter and summer. The continent's season change depends on the tilt of Earth's axis in relation to the sun.
Although, it contains 70 per cent of the world's fresh water, Antarctica is considered a desert as it receives a very low amount of rain or snowfall.
More than 300 large lakes are covered under the ice sheet of Antarctica.
Changes observed in Antarctica
Antarctica has been observed to go through the highest ice loss rate in past 25 years, resulting in global sea level raise.
According to the latest data of NASA, the region is losing ice at an accelerated rate.
The ice loss rate has tripled since 2012 and has resulted in the increase of global sea levels by 0.12 inch (3 millimetres).
The team looked at the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet from 1992 to 2017 and found that the global sea level raised by 0.3 inches (7.6 millimetres).
These rapid rates of ice melting from Antarctica is causing sea level rise faster than any time in past 25 years.
Before 2012, the ice loss was at a steady rate of about 83.8 billion tons per year, contributing about 0.008 inches to the sea level rise every year.
Two important researches conducted in Antarctica
Under
the mission BARREL, research team launched balloons every day or two
into the circumpolar winds that circulate around the pole.
The scientists released 20 balloons in 2013 into the air under mission BARREL to study Radiation-belt Relativity Electron Losses, led by physicist Robyn Millan of Dartmouth College in Hanover.
The research team launched a balloon every day or two into the circumpolar winds that circulate around the pole.
The balloon floated anywhere from three to forty days, measuring X-rays produced by fast-moving electrons high up in the atmosphere.
The final balloon was released by the researchers on August 30, 2016, to study how electrons precipitate into earth's atmosphere.
A total of eight payloads were launched. The team was able to observe parts of near-Earth space at the same time as other key NASA missions.
IceBridge
Mission IceBridge aimed to collect data on many facets of Antarctic land and sea ice.
IceBridge's laser altimeter, the Airborne Topographic Mapper or ATM, collected ice elevation data along paths previously measured by NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite, or ICESat, in 2009.
The last flight was mission IceBridge was scheduled on May 27, 2017.
This final full science flight ICESat-2 south, was designed long the ground tracks of NASA's upcoming ice, cloud and Land Elevation Sattelite-2 to fill in a gap in altimetry coverage of central southern Greenland.
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