NASA Study Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater Than Losses NASA

NASA Study: Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater than Losses | NASA https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/nasa-study-mass-gains-of-antarctic...
Ice (/subject/3132/ice)
Oct. 30, 2015
NASA Study: Mass Gains of

Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater than
Losses
A new NASA study says that an increase in

Antarctic snow accumulation that began 10,000
years ago is currently adding enough ice to the
continent to outweigh the increased losses from
its thinning glaciers.
The research challenges the conclusions of other

studies, including the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Changes (IPCC) 2013 report, which says
that Antarctica is overall losing land ice.
According to the new analysis of satellite data, the

Antarctic ice sheet showed a net gain of 112
billion tons of ice a year from 1992 to 2001. That
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/antarctic-
net gain slowed to 82 billion tons of ice per year
peninsula.jpg)
between 2003 and 2008.
A new NASA study says that Antarctica is overall accumulating
ice. Still, areas of the continent, like the Antarctic Peninsula
Were essentially in agreement with other studies photographed above, have increased their mass loss in the last
that show an increase in ice discharge in the decades.
Antarctic Peninsula and the Thwaites and Pine Credits: NASA's Operation IceBridge
Island region of West Antarctica, said Jay Zwally, ()
a glaciologist with NASA Goddard Space Flight

Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author of
the study, which was published on Oct. 30 in the Journal of Glaciology. Our main disagreement is for East
Antarctica and the interior of West Antarctica there, we see an ice gain that exceeds the losses in the
other areas. Zwally added that his team measured small height changes over large areas, as well as the
large changes observed over smaller areas.
Scientists calculate how much the ice sheet is growing or shrinking from the changes in surface height that
are measured by the satellite altimeters. In locations where the amount of new snowfall accumulating on an
ice sheet is not equal to the ice flow downward and outward to the ocean, the surface height changes and
the ice-sheet mass grows or shrinks.
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But it might only take a few decades for

(/multimedia/nasatv/index.html)
Antarcticas growth to reverse, according to
(/)NASA TV
Zwally. If the losses of the Antarctic Peninsula
and parts of West Antarctica continue to increase
at the same rate theyve been increasing for the
last two decades, the losses will catch up with the
long-term gain in East Antarctica in 20 or 30 years
-- I dont think there will be enough snowfall
increase to offset these losses.
The study analyzed changes in the surface height

of the Antarctic ice sheet measured by radar
altimeters on two European Space Agency
European Remote Sensing (ERS) satellites,
spanning from 1992 to 2001, and by the laser
altimeter on NASAs Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation
Satellite (ICESat) from 2003 to 2008.
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/figure-
Zwally said that while other scientists have
dmdt-map.png)
assumed that the gains in elevation seen in East Map showing the rates of mass changes from ICESat 2003-2008
M ORE STORIES
Antarctica are due to recent increases in snow over Antarctica. Sums are for all of Antarctica: East Antarctica
accumulation, his team used meteorological data (EA, 2-17); interior West Antarctica (WA2, 1, 18, 19, and 23);
beginning in 1979 to show that the snowfall in coastal West Antarctica (WA1, 20-21); and the Antarctic
Peninsula (24-27). A gigaton (Gt) corresponds to a billion metric
East Antarctica actually decreased by 11 billion
tons, or 1.1 billion U.S. tons.
tons per year during both the ERS and ICESat Credits: Jay Zwally/ Journal of Glaciology
periods. They also used information on snow ()
accumulation for tens of thousands of years,
derived by other scientists from ice cores, to
conclude that East Antarctica has been thickening
for a very long time.
At the end of the last Ice Age, the air became warmer and carried more moisture across the continent,
doubling the amount of snow dropped on the ice sheet, Zwally said.
The extra snowfall that began 10,000 years ago has been slowly accumulating on the ice sheet and
compacting into solid ice over millennia, thickening the ice in East Antarctica and the interior of West
Antarctica by an average of 0.7 inches (1.7 centimeters) per year. This small thickening, sustained over
thousands of years and spread over the vast expanse of these sectors of Antarctica, corresponds to a
very large gain of ice enough to outweigh the losses from fast-flowing glaciers in other parts of the
continent and reduce global sea level rise.
Zwallys team calculated that the mass gain from the thickening of East Antarctica remained steady from
1992 to 2008 at 200 billion tons per year, while the ice losses from the coastal regions of West Antarctica
and the Antarctic Peninsula increased by 65 billion tons per year.
The good news is that Antarctica is not currently contributing to sea level rise, but is taking 0.23
millimeters per year away, Zwally said. But this is also bad news. If the 0.27 millimeters per year of sea
level rise attributed to Antarctica in the IPCC report is not really coming from Antarctica, there must be
some other contribution to sea level rise that is not accounted for.
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The new study highlights the difficulties of measuring the small changes in ice height happening in East
Antarctica, said Ben Smith, a glaciologist with the University of Washington in Seattle who was not
(/)NASA TV
involved in Zwallys study.
"Doing altimetry accurately for very large areas is extraordinarily difficult, and there are measurements of
snow accumulation that need to be done independently to understand whats happening in these places,
Smith said.
To help accurately measure changes in Antarctica, NASA is developing the successor to the ICESat
mission, ICESat-2, which is scheduled to launch in 2018. ICESat-2 will measure changes in the ice sheet
within the thickness of a No. 2 pencil, said Tom Neumann, a glaciologist at Goddard and deputy project
scientist for ICESat-2. It will contribute to solving the problem of Antarcticas mass balance by providing a
long-term record of elevation changes.
Related Link
Learn more about this study (http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/igsoc/jog/pre-prints

/content-ings_jog_15j071)
M ORE STORIES
Maria-Jos Vias (m ailto:m aria-

jose.vinasgarcia@nasa.gov?subject=RE%20MASS%20GAINS%20OF%20ANTARCTIC%20ICE%20SHEET%20G
NASA's Earth Science News Team (http://www.nasa.gov/earth)
Last Updated: Aug. 18, 2016

Editor: Rob Garner
Tags: Climate (/subject/3127/climate), Earth (/topics/earth/index.html), Goddard Space Flight Center (/centers
/goddard/home/index.html), Ice (/subject/3132/ice)
Landsat
(http://www.nasa.gov
/mission_pages/landsat
Dec. 12, 2016
/main/index.html)
NASA/USGS Satellite Provides
Global View of Speed of Ice
AGU 2016 Briefing Materials - NASA/USGS Satellite Provides Global View of Speed of Ice (/sites
/default/files/atoms/files/landsaticevelocityagubriefing.pdf)
Glaciers and ice sheets move in unique and sometimes surprising patterns, as evidenced by a new
capability that uses satellite images to map the speed of flowing ice in Greenland, Antarctica and mountain
3 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

ranges around the world.

(/)Nand
With imagery ASAdata TV
from Landsat 8, a joint mission of NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, scientists
are providing a near-real-time view of every large glacier and ice sheet on Earth. The NASA-funded Global
Land Ice Velocity Extraction project, called GoLIVE, is a collaboration between scientists from the
University of Colorado, the University of Alaska, and NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
California. It aims to better understand how ice flow is changing worldwide and its impact on sea level.
M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/heimdal_0.jpg)
The texture on the surface of flowing ice, such as Heimdal Glacier in southern Greenland, allows Landsat 8 to map nearly all the flowing
ice in the world.
Credits: NASA/John Sonntag
"We are now able to map how the skin of ice is moving," said Ted Scambos, senior research scientist at
the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, and the Colorado lead for
the GoLIVE project. He and his colleagues are releasing new results from the project at the American
Geophysical Unions Fall Meeting in San Francisco. "From now on, were going to be able to track all of the
different types of changes in glaciers theres so much science to extract from the data."
With a near-real-time view of how glaciers and ice sheets are moving, researchers can integrate
information about atmosphere and ocean conditions to determine what causes these ice sheets to change
and what that means for how much ice is flowing into the ocean. That could help provide critical
information to coastal communities that will be most impacted by rising oceans.
We can use the method to identify which areas to keep an eye on, or which events might lead to a rapid
change, Scambos said.
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To map the ice, the GoLIVE team has written software that is able to follow the surfaces subtle features,
like bumps or a dune-like pattern, as they flow toward the ocean. The Landsat 8 satellite collects images of
(/)NASA TV
Earth's entire surface every 16 days. By comparing images taken from the same location, but at different
times, the researchers use their software to track the features and determine the speed.
Several new capabilities of Landsat 8 enable researchers to generate these global maps. The satellite can
take 700 images a day far more than its predecessors which means it captures nearly every scene
over land, every day, in all the sunlit parts of its orbit. Previous Landsat satellites often did not have the
capacity to collect frequent data over remote sites like Antarctica. The imaging system on Landsat 8 is
also far more sensitive than past Landsat sensors, allowing it to distinguish far more subtle differences in
shading and surface texture. This, plus faster and more precise software, has revolutionized the extent to
which ice flow speed can be mapped. These features will be continued in the Landsat 9 satellite,
scheduled for launch in 2020.
Alaska
In Alaska, for example, researchers can observe surging glaciers in almost real time, said scientist Mark
Fahnestock of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Often glaciers in Alaska and the Yukon are so remote
that speedup events can go unnoticed for months, until a pilot flying over the region reports disrupted ice,
he said.
M ORE STORIES
By measuring ice flow all the time, we can identify a surge as it starts, providing an entirely new way to
follow this phenomenon," he said. We can also follow large seasonal swings in tidewater glaciers, as they
respond to their environment.
Scientists need to see all of this variability in order to identify trends that we need to worry about,
Fahnestock said. The speed of the glacier, combined with other information such as elevation change from
NASAs Operation IceBridge (http://www.nasa.gov/icebridge) campaign and other sources, provide
researchers in Alaska with a better sense of the entire picture of changing ice.
Greenland
Twila Moon, a research scientist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, uses the global maps to
expand the research she does on Greenland glaciers. With the new database, she can study the
movements of more than 240 glaciers, which comprise nearly all of the outlets from the ice sheet. Several
glaciers in northwest Greenland have had accelerated speed in the last few years, while she saw some
glaciers in the southeast experience a large jump in speed, followed by a plateau.
Show
only
Show
Left
The flow of ice is dramatically faster at Greenlands Heimdal Glacier in June 2016 (left), compared to October 2016 (right).
only
Credits: NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio/Cindy Starr, data visualizer
Right
Download these images and additional multimedia from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio (https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4528)
With Landsat 8 making a pass every 16 days, she can also measure seasonal changes. Most glaciers go
in cyclic patterns throughout the year, but even those vary. While most speed up in the warmer summer
months, Moon has found several that slow down dramatically in the mid- to late-summer. The Heimdal
Glacier in southeast Greenland, for example, can move more than 10 meters per day (33 feet per day) in
early summer, then drop to less than 6 meters per day (20 feet per day) by August or September.
5 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

We can group these glaciers by looking at the similarities in their behavior, Moon said. Its providing an
opportunity to get at the underlying drivers of why they change.
(/)NASA TV
With measurements of what the seasonal shifts do to glacier speed, scientists can extrapolate what will
happen to those glaciers as global temperatures continue to climb, she said. With fast-moving glaciers
ending in the ocean, these studies can help scientists estimate how much new ice and water enters the
Arctic Ocean. That new water can have both global and local impacts, changing the local ecosystems,
ocean flow patterns and raising sea level.
M ORE STORIES
Near-real-time mapping of ice speed of nearly all the worlds frozen regions will provide scientists with important information about our
home planet and its vulnerability to rising seas.
Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Kathryn Mersmann, producer
Download this video in HD formats from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio (http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12444)
Were approaching a point where we have enough detailed information at different locations that we can
start to answer important questions about what makes glaciers tick, Moon said.
Antarctica and high-mountain Asia
Scientists are working with the new Landsat data to better understand how different environmental
changes in the atmosphere and ocean impact flowing ice, said Alex Gardner, a research scientist at
NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Landsat 8 images, combined with earlier Landsat satellites
reaching back to the 1980s, give researchers decades' worth of imagery to investigate these links.
The question is, how sensitive are these ice sheets to changes in the atmosphere and the ocean?
Gardner said. We could wait and see, or we could look to the past to help inform what is most likely to
happen in the future.
Gardner combines the detailed Antarctic ice cover seen by Landsat 8 with an earlier continental mapping
of glacier flow based on radar data. By piecing the data together, he is working to understand decadal
6 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

changes in ice flow for the entirety of the Antarctic Ice sheet.
(/)N
Tracking the ASAinTV
changes speed in Antarctica is key because of the sheer size of the ice sheet and its
potential to contribute to future changes in sea level. Almost 2,000 cubic kilometers (480 cubic miles) of
ice flows into the surrounding ocean each year.
Seemingly small changes in ice speed on some of these very large glaciers can have a real impact,
Gardner said.
Gardner and his colleagues have also mapped the glaciers in Karakoram and other high mountain ranges
/goddard/home/index.html), Ice (/subject/3132/ice), Landsat (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/landsat
/main/index.html)
Read Full Article

M ORE STORIES
Earth (/topics/earth
/index.html)
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/polar-bear-mountain-lion-reindeer.jpg)
Dec. 12, 2016
What Satellites Can Tell Us About

How Animals Will Fare in a
Changing Climate
AGU 2016 Briefing Materials - What Satellites Can Tell Us About How Animals Will Fare in a Changing
Climate (/sites/default/files/atoms/files/animals-changing-climate-agu-briefing-2016.pdf)
From the Arctic to the Mojave Desert, terrestrial and marine habitats are rapidly changing. These changes
impact animals that are adapted to specific ecological niches, sometimes displacing them or reducing their
numbers. From their privileged vantage point, satellites are particularly well-suited to observe habitat
transformation and help scientists forecast impacts on the distribution, abundance and migration of
7 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

animals.
In a press(/)
NASA Monday
conference TV at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, three
researchers discussed how detailed satellite observations have facilitated ecological studies of change
over time. The presenters discussed how changes in Arctic sea ice cover have helped scientists predict a
30 percent drop in the global population of polar bears over the next 35 years. They also talked about how
satellite imagery of dwindling plant productivity due to droughts in North America gives hints of how both
migratory herbivores and their predators will fare. Finally, they also discussed how satellite data on plant
growth indicate that the concentration of wild reindeer herds in the far north of Russia has not led to
overgrazing of their environment, as previously thought.
Long-term polar bear declines
Polar bears depend on sea ice for nearly all

aspects of their life, including hunting, traveling
and breeding. Satellites from NASA and other
agencies have been tracking sea ice changes
since 1979, and the data show that Arctic sea ice
has been shrinking at an average rate of about
20,500 square miles (53,100 square kilometers)
M ORE STORIES
per year over the 1979-2015 period. Currently, the

status of polar bear subpopulations is variable; in
some areas of the Arctic, polar bear numbers are
likely declining, but in others, they appear to be
stable or possibly growing.
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/polar-
When we look forward several decades, climate bear-beaufort-sea-alaska.jpg)
models predict such profound loss of Arctic sea A young polar bear sitting on the shore in southern Beaufort Sea,
Alaska. In some parts of the Arctic, sea ice loss is causing polar
ice that theres little doubt this will negatively
bears to spend longer periods on shore each summer.
affect polar bears throughout much of their range, Credits: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Eric Regehr
because of their critical dependence on sea ice,
said Kristin Laidre, a researcher at the University
of Washington's Polar Science Center in Seattle
and co-author of a study on projections of the global polar bear population. Eric Regehr of the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service in Anchorage, Alaska, led the study, which was published on December 7 in the journal
Biology Letters.
On short time scales, we can have variable responses to the loss of sea ice among subpopulations of
polar bears, Laidre said. For example, in some parts of the Arctic, such as the Chukchi Sea, polar bears
appear healthy, fat and reproducing well this may be because this area is very ecologically productive,
so you can lose some ice before seeing negative effects on bears. In other parts of the Arctic, like
western Hudson Bay, studies have shown that survival and reproduction have declined as the availability
of sea ice declines.
Regehr, Laidre and their colleagues results are the product of the International Union for Conservation of
Natures (IUCN) Red List assessment for polar bears. To determine the level of threat to a species, IUCN
requests scientists to project what the species population numbers will be after three generations. Using
data collected from adult females in 11 subpopulations of polar bears across the Arctic, Regehr and
Laidres team calculated the generation length for polar bearsthe average age of reproducing adult
femalesto be 11.5 years. They then used the satellite record of Arctic sea ice extent to calculate the
8 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

rates of sea ice loss and then projected those rates into the future, to estimate how much more the sea
ice cover may shrink in approximately three polar bear generations, or 35 years.
(/)NASA TV
Lastly, the scientists evaluated different scenarios for the relationships between polar bear abundance and
sea ice. In one of them, the bear numbers declined directly proportionally with sea ice. In the other
scenarios, the researchers used the existing, albeit scarce, data on how polar bear abundance has
changed with respect to sea ice loss, using all available data from polar bear subpopulations in the four
existing polar bear eco-regions, and projected forward these observed trends. They concluded that, based
on a median value across all scenarios, theres a high probability of a 30 percent decline in the global
population of polar bears over the next three to four decades, which supports listing the species as
vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
It is difficult to predict what population numbers will be in the future, especially for animals that live in vast
and remote regions, Regehr said. But at the end of the day, polar bears need sea ice to be polar bears.
This study adds to a growing body of evidence that the species will likely face large declines as loss of
their habitat continues.
Drought and m ountain lions
The southwestern United States is expected to

become more prone to droughts with climate
M ORE STORIES
change. The resulting loss of vegetation will not

only impact herbivores like mule deer; their main
predator, mountain lions, might take an even larger
hit.
To estimate the numbers and distribution of mule

deer and mountain lions in Utah, Nevada and
Arizona, David Stoner, a wildlife ecologist at Utah
State University in Logan, Utah, used imagery of
plant productivity from the Moderate Resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer, flown on NASAs Terra
and Aqua satellites, plus radio-telemetry
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/adult-female-
measurements of animal density and movements.
mountain-lion-oquirrh-mountains-utah.jpg)
He found that there is a very strong relationship Adult female mountain lion in Oquirrh Mountains, Utah. This
between plant productivity and deer and mountain collared female was part of a study examining mountain lion
lion density. population dynamics that ran from 1997 to 2013.
Credits: Utah State University/David Stoner
Measuring abundance of mule deer in the western
United States is logistically difficult, hazardous and
very expensive. For mountain lions, its even worse, Stoner said. But measuring changes in vegetation is
relatively easy and more affordable. With this research, weve provided a model that wildlife managers can
use to estimate the density of deer and mountain lions, two big game species of great economic
importance.
Using maps of vegetation productivity during a severe drought that occurred in the southwestern United
States in 2002, Stoner modeled what would be the deer and mountain lion distribution and abundance,
should extreme drought become the norm.
"During 2002, there was a 30 percent decrease from the historical record mean in precipitation, Stoner
said. Using measurements of vegetation stressed by drought, our model predicted a 22 percent decrease
9 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

in deer density. For mountain lions, the decline was 43 percent. Mountain lions occur at far lower densities
than deer, and so any loss of their prey can have disporportionate impacts on their reproductive rates and
(/)NASA TV
overall abundance."
Mule deer are popular game animals, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars to rural areas through
recreational hunting and tourism. But deer can also have adverse economic impacts; they cause vehicle
collisions, devour crops and damage gardens.
Droughts will make human landscapes more attractive to deer, because farms and suburban areas are
irrigated and would remain fairly green, Stoner said. And mountain lions will go wherever the deer are.
Were going to lose some of the economic benefits of having those animals, because theyll be fewer of
them, but the costs are going to increase because the remaining animals will be attracted to cities and
farms.
Longer journeys for wild reindeer
The Taimyr reindeer herd in the northernmost

region of Russia is the largest wild reindeer herd
in the world and a key of source of food for the
indigenous population of the Taimyr Peninsula.
M ORE STORIES
Reindeer populations are declining all over the

world, in some places catastrophically; in Taimyr,
there has been an about 40 percent drop since
2000 and the herd is now at 600,000 animals,
said Andrey Petrov, an associate professor at the
University of Northern Iowa, in Cedar Falls.
Petrov examined historical data going back to

(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/334826.jpg)
1969 and determined that there are ongoing Taimyr reindeer in northern Russia, summer of 2003.
changes in the distribution and migration patterns Credits: Leonid Kolpashchikov
of the wild reindeer due to climate change and
human pressure. The reindeer have moved east,
away from human activity. At the same time, the
herd is now traveling farther north and higher in elevation during the summer, possibly to avoid increasing
temperatures and more abundant mosquitoes.
Taimyr reindeer now have to travel longer distances between their winter and summer grounds, and this is
causing a higher calf mortality, Petrov said. Other factors contributing to the higher mortality are the
increased mosquito harassment and the fact that rivers are opening earlier than before and the animals
have to cross them during their migration.
Petrov also used imagery from the NASA/United States Geological Survey Landsat satellite program to
determine how the presence of reindeer in their summer grounds impacts vegetation. He found that, as
expected, plant biomass decreased while the reindeer were grazing, but it bounced back a few weeks after
the animals left the area. This finding argues against overgrazing as a possible factor for the Taimyr
reindeer population decline that occurred after 2000.
The work discussed at todays press conference is emblematic of the many ways in which satellite remote
sensing supports our efforts at natural resource management and wildlife conservation, said Woody
Turner, program scientist for NASAs Biological Diversity Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
10 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

Laidre and Stoners research projects received funding from NASA. The National Science Foundation
funded Petrovs research.
(/)NASA TV
AGU 2016 Briefing Materials - What Satellites Can Tell Us About How Animals Will Fare in a Changing
Climate (/sites/default/files/atoms/files/animals-changing-climate-agu-briefing-2016.pdf)
Related Links
NASAs AGU website (http://www.nasa.gov /agu)
Tags: Aqua Satellite (https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/aqua/index.html), Benefits to You (/topics/benefits

/index.html), Climate (/subject/3127/climate), Earth (/topics/earth/index.html), Goddard Space Flight Center
(/centers/goddard/home/index.html), Ice (/subject/3132/ice), Landsat (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages
/landsat/main/index.html), LDCM (Landsat Data Continuity Mission) (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages
/landsat/main/index.html), Terra Satellite (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/terra/index.html)
Read Full Article

M ORE STORIES
IceBridge
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/index.html)
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/icebridge-2016-northernmost-antarctic-peninsula.jpg)
Nov. 18, 2016
NASA Nears Finish Line of Annual

Study of Changing Antarctic Ice
Operation IceBridge, NASAs airborne survey of changes in polar ice, is closing in on the end of its eighth
consecutive Antarctic deployment, and will likely tie its 2012 campaign record for the most research flights
carried out during a single Antarctic season.
We are probing the most remote corners of Spaceship Earth to learn more about changes that affect all of
us locally, such as how ice sheets are contributing to sea level rise, said NASA Deputy Administrator
Dava Newman on her very first flight over Antarctica with the IceBridge team on Nov. 17. At NASA we
11 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

explore: not only space, but also our home planet.

(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
Flying low over the Earths southernmost continent, Operation IceBridge is wrapping up its eighth consecutive field season of mapping
the ice sheet and glaciers of Antarctica, as well as the surrounding sea ice. With more than 300 hours logged in the air over 24 science
flights, the mission is considering 2016 one of the most successful seasons yet.
Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Jefferson Beck, producer
Operation IceBridge is particularly well suited to measure changes in polar ice: it carries probably the
most innovative and precise package of instruments ever flown over Antarctica, Newman said.
"This campaign was possibly the best Antarctic campaign IceBridge has ever had, said John Sonntag,
IceBridge mission scientist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "We flew as
many flights as we did in our best prior campaigns down here, and we certainly got more science return out
of each flight than we have before, due to steadily improving instrumentation and also to some
exceptionally good weather in the Weddell Sea that favored our sea ice flights."
Antarctica is heading into austral summer, a period of rapid sea ice melt in the Southern Ocean. But this
year the sea ice loss has been particularly swift and the Antarctic sea ice extent is currently at the lowest
level for this time of year ever recorded in the satellite record, which began in 1979.
"We flew over the Bellingshausen Sea many times during this campaign and saw that areas that are
typically covered by sea ice were just open water this year, said Nathan Kurtz, IceBridges project
scientist and a sea ice researcher at NASA Goddard. "It is a reminder that it is important that we continue
the time series of IceBridge measurements in the area so that we can measure both changes in sea ice
extent and in sea ice thickness to assess the future trajectory of the ice pack and its impact on the
climate.
IceBridge expanded its reach this year, covering a vast swath of Antarctica from the Ruppert Coast in
West Antarctica to Recovery Glacier in the eastern half of the continent, plus the Weddell and
Bellingshausen seas. Additionally, IceBridge flew twice over the South Pole, an area rarely measured
12 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

since satellites dont overfly it.

During its (/)
sixN ASAof TV
weeks operations from its base in
Punta Arenas, in the southernmost tip of Chile,
IceBridge carried out 24 flights over Antarctica. In
total, IceBridges airborne laboratory and team
flew 308 hours.
"We are very satisfied that we flew all of our

baseline flights and most of our high-priority ones,
said Joe MacGregor, IceBridge deputy project
scientist and glaciologist at Goddard. "We flew to
places we had never surveyed comprehensively (/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/icebridge-
before or had only flown once, like the Abbott Ice 2016-bellingshausen-sea-iceberg.jpg)
Shelf, and revisited some of our classic targets, An iceberg surrounded by sea ice in the Bellingshausen Sea, as
like the ever-changing Pine Island and Thwaites seen from aboard NASA's DC-8 scientific aircraft Oct. 22, 2016.
glaciers.
()
One of this years missions flew over a massive

rift in the Antarctic Peninsulas Larsen C Ice Shelf.
M ORE STORIES
Ice shelves are the floating parts of ice streams

and glaciers, and they buttress the grounded ice
behind them; when ice shelves collapse, the ice
behind accelerates toward the ocean, where it
then adds to sea level rise. Larsen C neighbors a
smaller ice shelf that disintegrated in 2002 after
developing a rift similar to the one now growing in
Larsen C.
The IceBridge scientists measured the Larsen C

fracture to be about 70 miles long, more than 300
feet wide and about a third of a mile deep. The
crack completely cuts through the ice shelf but it
does not go all the way across it once it does, it (/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/icebridge-
will produce an iceberg roughly the size of the 2016-pine-island-glacier-pig-rift.jpg)
state of Delaware. Large rift near the Pine Island Glacier tongue, West Antarctica,
as seen during an IceBridge flight on Nov. 4, 2016.
"Its a large rift on an ice shelf whose future we Credits: NASA/Nathan Kurtz
()
are curious about. Inevitably, when you see it in
satellite imagery or from a plane, you wonder what
is going to happen when it breaks off, MacGregor
said. "However, large icebergs calve from ice shelves regularly and they normally do not lead to ice-shelf
collapse. The growth of this rift likely indicates that the portion of the ice shelf downstream of the rift is no
longer holding back any grounded ice.
As with every field season, IceBridge collaborated with other science teams: this year, IceBridge flew
under one of ESAs (the European Space Agency) CryoSat-2 satellites tracks and coordinated with a team
from the British Antarctic Survey that was also conducting aerial surveys of the frozen continent.
"The British group began their campaign after we did, but targeted some of the areas we flew with a similar
13 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

instrument suite. Once we process our data and

they process theirs, well be able to compare our
(/)NASA TV
measurements and combine them to form a better
picture of Antarctica, MacGregor said. "We also
flew over their on-continent bases, providing them
with images of nearby areas as they prepare their
operations for this field season.
During her stay in Punta Arenas, Newman met

with Chilean researchers and students to discuss
future opportunities with Chile.
We love working with our Chilean colleagues:

from the northern Atacama desert for astrobiology
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/dava-newman-
research to its southernmost city, Punta Arenas,
icebridge.jpg)
to study Antarctic land and sea ice, Newman
NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman is interviewed by a
said. Given this strong partnership, were looking film crew shortly before departing on her first Operation IceBridge
forward to exciting future collaborations. science flight out of Punta Arenas, Chile, on Nov. 17, 2016.
Credits: NASA/Maria-Jose Vias
In addition to the NASA deputy administrator,
M ORE STORIES
IceBridge also welcomed U.S. Ambassador to

Chile Carol Perez. Other guest participation
included visitors from the State Department and U.S. Embassy in Chile; six U.S. teachers currently living
and teaching in Chile; a Facebook representative; a visual artist; two photographers; and several
journalists from various media outlets.
IceBridge researchers and Maggie Kane, a high school science teacher from Colorado who was
embedded in the Antarctic campaign through the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States
PolarTREC program, participated in 70 chats directly from the plane with classrooms in the U.S., Canada,
Mexico and Chile, reaching over 1,800 students. Kane also gave several talks on IceBridges research to
Chilean students in Punta Arenas and Santiago.
The mission of Operation IceBridge is to collect data on changing polar land and sea ice and maintain
continuity of measurements between NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) missions.
The original ICESat mission ended in 2009, and its successor, ICESat-2, is scheduled for launch in 2018.
Operation IceBridge, which began in 2009, is currently funded until 2019. The planned overlap with
ICESat-2 will help scientists validate the satellites measurements. For more about Operation IceBridge
and to follow future campaigns, visit:
NASA's Operation IceBridge website (http://www.nasa.gov /icebridge)
Banner im age: The northernmost Antarctic Peninsula, viewed from the northeast aboard the IceBridge
research aircraft on an Oct. 17, 2016, flight toward the mission's inshore survey line in the western
Weddell Sea. Credit: NASA/John Sonntag
By Maria-Jose Vias (m ailto:m aria-

jose.vinasgarcia@nasa.gov?subject=RE%20NASA%20Nears%20Finish%20Line%20of%20Annual%20Study%2
NASAs Earth Science News Team (http://www.nasa.gov/earth)
14 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

Last Updated: Nov. 18, 2016

Editor: Rob Garner
(/)NASA TV
/goddard/home/index.html), Ice (/subject/3132/ice), IceBridge (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge
/index.html)
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Nov. 14, 2016
Extremely Warm 2015-16 Winter

Cyclone Weakened Arctic Sea Ice
Pack
A large cyclone that crossed the Arctic in December 2015 brought so much heat and humidity to this
otherwise frigid and dry environment that it thinned and shrunk the sea ice cover during a time of the year
when the ice should have been growing thicker and stronger, a NASA study found.
15 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

/multimedia/nasatv/index.html)
(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
A large cyclone that crossed the Arctic in December 2015 brought so much heat and humidity to this otherwise frigid environment that it
thinned and shrunk the sea ice cover during a time when the ice should have been growing.
Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Kathryn Mersmann, producer
The cyclone formed on Dec. 28, 2015, in the middle of the North Atlantic, and traveled to the United
Kingdom and Iceland before entering the Arctic on Dec. 30, lingering in the area for several days. During
the height of the storm, the mean air temperatures in the Kara and Barents seas region, north of Russia
and Norway, were 18 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) warmer than what the average had been
for this time of the year since 2003.
The extremely warm and humid air mass associated with the cyclone caused an amount of energy
equivalent to the power used in one year by half a million American homes to be transferred from the
atmosphere to the surface of the sea ice in the Kara-Barents region. As a result, the areas sea ice
thinned by almost 4 inches (10 centimeters) on average.
At the same time, the storm winds pushed the edges of the sea ice north, compacting the ice pack.
During the cyclone, the sea ice retreated northward, causing a loss in coverage equaling the area of the
state of Florida, said Linette Boisvert, lead author of the study and a sea ice scientist at NASAs Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Boisvert and her colleagues used data from NASAs Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument
aboard the Aqua satellite to study the atmospheric effects of this storm on the sea ice, specifically the
evolution of air temperature and humidity during the storm. They also compared the cyclone to other
extreme events from past winters since 2003, the year AIRS began to collect data.
Measured against other extreme winter events that have happened in the Kara-Barents seas region over
the AIRS period, this one was the warmest, Boisvert said. The AIRS time period also coincides with the
warmest decade on record, so this storm being the hottest is a big deal.
16 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

The researchers also used a reanalysis of wind speeds, satellite passive microwave data of Arctic sea ice
concentration and a sea ice thickness model to study how the storm impacted the sea ice cover.
(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
This visualization starts with a global view of the Western Hemisphere. The viewer then moves in over the Arctic on Dec. 27, 2015.
Winds and air temperature fade in as time moves forward. A low pressure system then moves in pushing warm air ahead of it. The warm
air moves over the Arctic sea ice, contributing to dramatic melting of the sea ice concentration in this region.
Credits: NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio/Alex Kekesi, data visualizer
Usually, during the Arctic winter the atmosphere and surface of the ice are very cold, while the exposed
ocean waters are warmer, so theres a heat transfer from the ocean to atmosphere. During the cyclone,
the pattern was inverted and heat traveled from the atmosphere to the surface of the ice. After the storm,
the weather in the Kara-Barents seas region remained warmer than average for January, leading
scientists to believe this cyclone prevented the sea ice from recovering.
During the months of January, February and March of this year, Arctic sea ice presented the lowest
monthly extents in the satellite record, which were largely driven by abnormally low ice levels in the Kara
and Barents seas.
Model projections of Arctic sea ice show that ice thickness will continue to decline over the next decades,
making the sea ice cover even more vulnerable to winter storms.
In our study, we found that the thinnest ice was completely melted out by the storm, said Alek Petty, a
co-author of the study and a sea ice researcher at Goddard. Maybe in the coming years, if we start with a
thinner winter ice pack well see extreme events like these cause even bigger melt-outs across the Arctic.
Banner graphic: This image shows the winds and warm mass of air associated with a large cyclone that
swept the Arctic in late December 2015-early January 2016, thinning and shrinking the sea ice cover.
Credit: NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio/Alex Kekesi, data visualizer
17 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

By Maria-Jos Vias (m ailto:m aria-
(/)NASA TV
jose.vinasgarcia@nasa.gov?subject=RE%20Extrem ely%20Warm %202015-16%20Winter%20Cyclone%20Weak
Last Updated: Nov. 14, 2016

Editor: Rob Garner
Tags: Aqua Satellite (https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/aqua/index.html), Climate (/subject

/3127/climate), Earth (/topics/earth/index.html), Goddard Space Flight Center (/centers/goddard
/home/index.html), Ice (/subject/3132/ice)
Read Full Article
Climate (/subject
M ORE STORIES
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Oct. 28, 2016
See How Arctic Sea Ice Is Losing Its

Bulwark Against Warming
Summers
Arctic sea ice, the vast sheath of frozen seawater floating on the Arctic Ocean and its neighboring seas,
has been hit with a double whammy over the past decades: as its extent shrunk, the oldest and thickest ice
has either thinned or melted away, leaving the sea ice cap more vulnerable to the warming ocean and
atmosphere.
What weve seen over the years is that the older ice is disappearing, said Walt Meier, a sea ice
researcher at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. This older, thicker ice is like
the bulwark of sea ice: a warm summer will melt all the young, thin ice away but it cant completely get rid
18 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

of the older ice. But this older ice is becoming weaker because theres less of it and the remaining old ice
is more broken up and thinner, so that bulwark is not as good as it used to be.
(/)NASA TV
Show
only
Show
Left
Compare
only the extension of older sea ice in the Arctic in September 1984 and September 2016. The older ice is thicker and more
resistant to melt than new ice, so it protects the sea ice cap during warm summers. In September 1984, there were 1.86 million square
Right
kilometers of old ice (5 years or older) left throughout the Arctic sea ice cap during its yearly minimum extent; in September 2016, there
were only 110,000 square kilometers of older sea ice left.
Credits: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
Direct measurements of sea ice thickness are sporadic and incomplete across the Arctic, so scientists
have developed estimates of sea ice age and tracked their evolution from 1984 to the present. Now, a
new NASA visualization of the age of Arctic sea ice shows how sea ice has been growing and shrinking,
spinning, melting in place and drifting out of the Arctic for the past three decades.
M ORE STORIES
This animation shows the annual change in sea ice age in the Arctic at each year's minimum extent. Younger sea ice is shown in a dark
shade of blue while the ice that is five years old or older is shown as white. A bar graph displayed in the lower right corner quantifies the
area covered by the ice in each age category on the day of the annual minimum. In addition, memory bars (shown in green) portray the
maximum annual value for each age range seen since Jan. 1, 1984, on the day of the annual sea ice minimum extent.
Credits: NASAs Scientific Visualization Studio/Cindy Starr
Download this video in HD formats from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio (https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4489)
Ice age is a good analog for ice thickness because basically, as ice gets older it gets thicker, Meier said.
This is due to the ice generally growing more in the winter than it melts in the summer.
In the early 2000s, scientists at the University of Colorado developed a way to monitor Arctic sea ice
movement and the evolution of its age by using data from a variety of sources, but primarily satellite
passive microwave instruments. These instruments gauge brightness temperature: a measure of the
19 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

microwave energy emitted by sea ice that is influenced by the ices temperature, salinity, surface texture
and the layer of snow on top of the sea ice. Each floe of sea ice has a characteristic brightness
(/)NASA TV
temperature, so the researchers developed an approach that would identify and track ice floes in
successive passive microwave images as they moved across the Arctic. The system also uses
information from drifting buoys as well as weather data.
Its like bookkeeping; were keeping track of sea ice as it moves around, up until it melts in place or leaves
the Arctic, said Meier, who is a collaborator of the group at the University of Colorado and the National
Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, the center that currently maintains the Arctic sea ice age
data.
Ice in m otion
Every year, sea ice forms in the winter and melts in the summer. The sea ice that survives the melt season
thickens with each passing year: newly formed ice grows to about 3 to 7 feet of thickness during its first
year, while multi-year ice (sea ice that has survived several melt seasons) is about 10 to 13 feet thick.
The older and thicker ice is more resistant to melt and less likely to get pushed around by winds or broken
up by waves or storms.
Arctic sea ice has not only been shrinking in surface area in recent years, its becoming younger and
thinner as well. In this animation, where the ice cover almost looks gelatinous as it pulses through the
M ORE STORIES
seasons, cryospheric scientist Dr. Walt Meier of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center describes how the
sea ice has undergone fundamental changes during the era of satellite measurements.
On a week-to-week basis, there are weather systems that come through, so the ice isnt moving at a
constant rate: sometimes the Beaufort Gyre reverses or breaks down for a couple weeks or so, the
Transpolar Drift Stream shifts in its direction but the overall pattern is this one, Meier said. Then the
spring melt starts and the ice shrinks back, disappearing from the peripheral seas.
Arctic sea ice has not only been shrinking in surface area in recent years, its becoming younger and thinner as well. In this animation,
20 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

where the ice cover almost looks gelatinous as it pulses through the seasons, cryospheric scientist Dr. Walt Meier of NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center describes how the sea ice has undergone fundamental changes during the era of satellite measurements.
(/)NASA TV
Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Jefferson Beck, producer
The new animation shows two main bursts of thick ice loss: the first one, starting in 1989 and lasting a few
years, was due to a switch in the Arctic Oscillation, an atmospheric circulation pattern, which shrunk the
Beaufort Gyre and enhanced the Transpolar Drift Stream, flushing more sea ice than usual out of the
Arctic. The second peak in ice loss started in the mid-2000s.
/index.html), ICESat-2 (http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/icesat-2)
Read Full Article

M ORE STORIES
/index.html)
Sept. 15, 2016
Arctic Sea Ice Annual Minimum Ties

Second Lowest on Record
Arctic sea ice appeared to have reached its annual lowest extent on Sept. 10, NASA and the
NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder
reported today.
An analysis of satellite data showed that at 1.60 million square miles (4.14 million square kilometers), the
2016 Arctic sea ice minimum extent is effectively tied with 2007 for the second lowest yearly minimum in
the satellite record. Since satellites began monitoring sea ice in 1978, researchers have observed a steep
decline in the average extent of Arctic sea ice for every month of the year.
21 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
In this animation, the Earth rotates slowly as the Arctic sea ice advances over time from March 24, 2016, to Sept. 10, 2016, when the
sea ice reached its annual minimum extent. The 2016 Arctic minimum sea ice extent is the second lowest minimum extent on the satellite
record.
Credits: NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio/C. Starr
This video is public domain and can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio. (http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4494)
The sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas helps regulate the planets temperature,
influences the circulation of the atmosphere and ocean, and impacts Arctic communities and ecosystems.
Arctic sea ice shrinks every year during the spring and summer until it reaches its minimum yearly extent.
Sea ice regrows during the frigid fall and winter months, when the sun is below the horizon in the Arctic.
This summer, the melt of Arctic sea ice surprised

scientists by changing pace several times. The
melt season began with a record low yearly
maximum extent in March and a rapid ice loss
through May. But in June and July, low
atmospheric pressures and cloudy skies slowed
down the melt. Then, after two large storms went
across the Arctic basin in August, sea ice melt
picked up speed through early September.
Its pretty remarkable that this years sea ice (/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image

minimum extent ended up the second lowest, after /seaicemin_2016_withaveext.1360.jpg)
how the melt progressed in June and July, said The 2016 Arctic sea ice summertime minimum, reached on Sept.
Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist with NASAs 10, is 911,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. minimum sea ice extent, shown here as a gold line.
Credits: NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio/C.
June and July are usually key months for melt
Starr
because thats when you have 24 hours a day of
sunlight and this year we lost melt momentum
22 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

during those two months.

(/)Ntwo
But in August, ASAvery TV
strong cyclones crossed
the Arctic Ocean along the Siberian coast. These
storms didnt have as much of an immediate
impact on the sea ice as the great cyclone of
2012, but in late August and early September
there was a pretty fast ice loss in the Chukchi
and Beaufort seas that might be a delayed effect
from the storms, Meier said.
Meier also said that decades ago, the melt

season would slow down by the middle of August,
when the sun starts setting in the Arctic.
In the past, we had this remaining sea ice pack

that was mostly thick, old ice. But now everything
is more jumbled up, which makes it less resistant
to melt, so even late in the season you can get
weather conditions that give it a final kick, Meier
M ORE STORIES
said.
Arctic sea ice cover has not fared well during

(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image
other months of the year either. A recently
/global_seaice_rank1-2-3.jpg)
published study that ranked 37 years of monthly
These three figures, based on research by Claire Parkinson and
sea ice extents in the Arctic and Antarctic found Nicolo DiGirolamo, show sea-ice-extent rankings by year for each
that there has not been a record high in Arctic sea month, from January through December, over the period
ice extents in any month since 1986. During that spanning from 1979 to 2015, for the Arctic (top), Antarctic
(middle) and globally (bottom). In total, 444 months of average sea
same time period, there have been 75 new record
ice extent are represented in each graph. The darkest
lows. blue-colored squares represent a month where sea ice hit a
record low extent compared to the previous months on record,
When you think of the temperature records, its while the lightest-colored squares stand for a month where sea ice
common to hear the statement that even when extent hit a record high.
Credits: NASA Earth Observatory/Joshua Stevens
temperatures are increasing, you do expect a
Read the related paper (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science
record cold here or there every once in a while, /article/pii/S0034425716302218)
said Claire Parkinson, main author of the study
and a senior climate scientist at Goddard. To
think that in this record of Arctic sea ice that goes
back to the late 1970s, since 1986 there hasnt been a single record high in any month of the year, and
yet, over that same period, there have been 75 record lows. Its just an incredible contrast.
It is definitely not just September thats losing sea ice. The record makes it clear that the ice is not
rebounding to where it used to be, even in the midst of the winter, Parkinson said.
Parkinsons analysis, which spans from 1979 to 2015 found that in the Antarctic, where the trends are
toward more rather than less sea ice, there have only been six record monthly record lows after 1986, and
45 record highs.
The Antarctic numbers are pretty amazing, except when you compare them with the Arctics, which are
much more amazing, Parkinson said.
23 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

NSIDC analysis post:

https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2016/09/2016-ties-with-2007-for-second-lowest-arctic-sea-ice-
(/)NASA TV
minimum/ (https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2016/09/2016-ties-with-2007-for-second-lowest-arctic-
sea-ice-minimum/)
Press release link:
https://nsidc.org/news/newsroom/2016-ties-2007-second-lowest-arctic-sea-ice-minimum (https://nsidc.org
/news/newsroom/2016-ties-2007-second-lowest-arctic-sea-ice-minimum)
By Maria-Jos Vias (m ailto:m aria-
/index.html), ICESat-2 (http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/icesat-2)
Read Full Article

M ORE STORIES
/index.html)
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/29657417175_b4cf09704c_k.jpg)
Sept. 14, 2016
Polar Bears Across the Arctic Face

Shorter Sea Ice Season
Polar bears are among the animals most affected by the seasonal and year-to-year decline in Arctic sea
ice extent, because they rely on sea ice for essential activities such as hunting, traveling and breeding.
A new study by University of Washington researchers, funded by NASA and using satellite data from NASA
and other agencies, found a trend toward earlier sea ice melt in the spring and later ice growth in the fall
across all 19 polar bear subpopulations, which can negatively impact the feeding and breeding capabilities
of the bears. The paper, published on Sept. 14 in the journal The Cryosphere, is the first to quantify the
sea ice changes in each polar bear subpopulation across the entire Arctic region using metrics that are
specifically relevant to polar bear biology.
24 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

"This study shows declining sea ice for all subpopulations of polar bears," said co-author Harry Stern, a
researcher with the University of Washington's Polar Science Center in Seattle.
(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/29534188636_06c9e0fd3a_k.jpg)
A polar bear tests the strength of thin sea ice.
Credits: Mario Hoppmann
()
The analysis shows that the critical timing of the sea ice break-up and sea ice freeze-up is changing in all
areas in a direction that is harmful for polar bears.
Other researchers have used the satellite-derived sea ice data to look at how the sea ice extent in a
particular place is changing in a particular month. But for us the important thing was the timing of the retreat
of sea ice in the spring and its advance in the fall, for all 19 polar bear subpopulations, Stern said.
Nineteen separate polar bear subpopulations live throughout the Arctic, spending their winters and springs
roaming on sea ice and hunting. The bears have evolved mainly to eat seals, which provide necessary
fats and nutrients in the harsh Arctic environment. Polar bears can't outswim their prey, so instead they
perch on the ice as a platform and ambush seals at breathing holes or break through the ice to access
their dens.
25 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/29567923615_2b4b83d67d_k.jpg)
Three adult polar bears travel across sea ice in southeast Greenland.
Credits: Kristin Laidre/University of Washington
"Sea ice really is their platform for life," said co-author Kristin Laidre, a researcher at the UW's Polar
Science Center. "They are capable of existing on land for part of the year, but the sea ice is where they
obtain their main prey."
The new study draws upon 35 years of satellite data showing sea ice concentration each day in the Arctic.
NASA scientists process the data, stored at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.
The center also reports each fall the yearly minimum low for Arctic sea ice. This August saw the fourth
lowest in the satellite record and the September minimum extent is likely headed to its second lowest level
in the record.
In 17 of the 19 polar bear subpopulations, the researchers found that the total number of ice-covered days
declined at the rate of seven to 19 days per decade between 1979 and 2014. The decline was even
greater in the Barents Sea and the Arctic basin. Sea ice concentration during the summer months an
important measure because summertime is when some subpopulations are forced to fast on land also
declined in all regions, by 1 percent to 9 percent per decade.
The most striking result, researchers said, is the consistent trend across all polar bear regions for an
earlier spring ice melt and a later fall freeze-up. Arctic sea ice retreats in the springtime as daylight
reappears and temperatures warm. In the fall months the ice sheets build again as temperatures drop.
"These spring and fall transitions bound the period when there is good ice habitat available for bears to
feed," Laidre said. "Those periods are also tied to the breeding season when bears find mates, and when
26 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

females come out of their maternity dens with very small cubs and haven't eaten for months."
(/)NASA
The researchers found TV
that on average, spring melting was three to nine days earlier per decade, and fall
freeze-up was three to nine days later per decade. Over the 35 years of Arctic sea ice satellite data. that
corresponds to a roughly 3-and-a-half-week shift at either end and seven weeks of total loss of good
sea ice habitat for polar bears.
"We expect that if the trends continue, compared with today, polar bears will experience another six to
seven weeks of ice-free periods by mid-century," Stern said.
Read Full Article
Climate (/subject
M ORE STORIES
/3127/climate)
Sept. 6, 2016
NASA Science Flights Study Effect

of Summer Melt on Greenland Ice
Sheet
Operation IceBridge, NASAs airborne survey of polar ice, is flying in Greenland for the second time this
year, to observe the impact of the summer melt season on the ice sheet. The IceBridge flights, which
began on Aug. 27 and will continue until Sept. 16, are mostly repeats of lines that the team flew in early
May, so that scientists can observe changes in ice elevation between the spring and late summer.
27 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/helheim.jpg)
Helheim Glacier, with its characteristic wishbone-shaped channels, as seen from about 20,000 feet in the sky.
Credits: NASA/Operation IceBridge
Earlier in IceBridges history, we only surveyed the elevation of these glaciers once a year, said Joe
MacGregor, IceBridges deputy project scientist and a glaciologist with NASAs Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. But these glaciers experience the climate year-round. Now were starting
to complete the picture of what happens to them as the year goes on, especially after most of the summer
melting has already occurred, so we can measure their cumulative response to that melt.
The image above, taken during a high-priority flight that IceBridge carried on Aug. 29, shows Helheim
Glacier, with its characteristic wishbone-shaped channels, as seen from about 20,000 feet in the sky.
Helheim is one of Greenlands largest and fastest-melting glaciers. During the first week of the summer
land ice campaign, IceBridge has also flown over glaciers along Greenlands northwest, southeast and
southwest coasts, and also over lines that the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) flew over
Greenland during its 2003-2009 period of operations, to observe how ice elevation has evolved since
then. Future flights will cover critical areas in central and southern Greenland, such as the worlds fastest
glacier, Jakobshavn Isbr.
For this short, end-of-summer campaign, the IceBridge scientists are flying aboard an HU-25A Guardian
aircraft from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The Guardian is a version of an early-
generation Falcon 20 business jet, modified for service with the US Coast Guard and later acquired by
NASA. It The plane carries a laser instrument that measures changes in the ice elevation, a high-resolution
camera system to image the surface, and an instrument to infer the surface temperature. Due to the
Guardians limited range, the flights will be shorter (3.5 hours long) than the 8-hour missions carried during
IceBridges spring Arctic campaign, but the team expects to fly twice a day whenever possible.
28 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

continuity of measurements between ICESat missions. The original ICESat mission ended in 2009, and its
(/)NASA TV
successor, ICESat-2, is scheduled for launch in 2018. For more about Operation IceBridge and to follow
the current campaign, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/icebridge (http://www.nasa.gov/icebridge)
Maria-Jos Vias (m ailto:m aria-

jose.vinasgarcia@nasa.gov?subject=RE-%20NASA%20Study%20Shows%20Global%20Sea%20Ice%20Dim inis
%2C%20Despite%20Antarctic%20Gains)
/index.html)
Read Full Article

M ORE STORIES
Climate (/subject
/3127/climate)
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/barrowseaicecopy.jpg)
Aug. 19, 2016
NASA Monitors the 'New Normal' of

Sea Ice
This years melt season in the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas started with a bang, with a record low
maximum extent in March and relatively rapid ice loss through May. The melt slowed down in June,
however, making it highly unlikely that this years summertime sea ice minimum extent will set a new
record.
Even when its likely that we wont have a record low, the sea ice is not showing any kind of recovery. Its
still in a continued decline over the long term, said Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist at NASAs Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Its just not going to be as extreme as other years because
the weather conditions in the Arctic were not as extreme as in other years.
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A decade ago, this years sea ice extent would have set a new record low and by a fair amount. Now,
were kind of used to these low levels of sea ice its the new normal.
(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
In this animation, the daily Arctic sea ice and seasonal land cover change progress through time, from the prior sea ice maximum March
24, 2016, through Aug. 13, 2016. The Arctic sea ice cover likely wont reach its yearly minimum extent until mid-to-late September.
Credits: NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio/Cindy Starr
Download this video in HD at NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio (http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004400/a004487/)
This years sea ice cover of the Barents and Kara seas north of Russia opened up early, in April, exposing
the surface ocean waters to the energy from the sun weeks ahead of schedule. By May 31, the extent of
the Arctic sea ice cover was comparable to end-of-June average levels. But the Arctic weather changed in
June and slowed the sea ice loss. A persistent area of low atmospheric pressure, accompanied by
cloudiness, winds that dispersed ice and lower-than-average temperatures, didnt favor melt.
The rate of ice loss picked up again during the first two weeks of August, and is now greater than average
for this time of the year. A strong cyclone is moving through the Arctic, similar to one that occurred in early
August 2012. Four years ago, the storm caused an accelerated loss of ice during a period when the
decline in sea ice is normally slowing because the sun is setting in the Arctic. However, the current storm
doesnt appear to be as strong as the 2012 cyclone and ice conditions are less vulnerable than four years
ago, Meier said.
This year is a great case study in showing how important the weather conditions are during the summer,
especially in June and July, when you have 24 hours of sunlight and the sun is high in the sky in the Arctic,
Meier said. If you get the right atmospheric conditions during those two months, they can really accelerate
the ice loss. If you dont, they can slow down any melting momentum you had. So our predictive ability in
May of the September minimum is limited, because the sea ice cover is so sensitive to the early-to-mid-
summer atmospheric conditions, and you cant foresee summer weather.
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(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/good6.jpg)
Arctic sea ice has varied terrain in the summer months, as ridges and melt ponds form and floes break apart. A new NASA satellite
called ICESat-2, launching in 2018, will measure the height of sea ice year-round.
Credits: NASA/Kate Ramsayer
()
As scientists are keeping an eye on the Arctic sea ice cover, NASA is also preparing for a new method to
measure the thickness of sea ice a difficult but key characteristic to track from orbit.
"We have a good handle on the sea ice area

change," said Thorsten Markus, Goddards
cryosphere lab chief. "We have very limited
knowledge how thick it is."
Research vessels or submarines can measure ice

thickness directly, and some airborne instruments
have taken readings that can be used to calculate
thickness. But satellites havent been able to
provide a complete look at sea ice thickness in
particular during melting conditions, Markus said. (/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image
The radar instruments that penetrate the snow /arctic_sea_ice-aug_2016_still.3728.jpg)
during winter to measure thickness dont work Visualization of Arctic sea ice extent on Aug. 13, 2016.
once you add in the salty water of the melting sea Credits: NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio
ice, since the salinity interferes with the radar. ()
The Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or

ICESat-2, will use lasers to try to get more
31 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

complete answers of sea ice thickness. The satellite, slated to launch by 2018, will use a laser altimeter to
measure the heights of Earths surface.
(/)NASA TV
In the Arctic, it will measure the elevation of the ice floes, compared to the water level. However, only
about one-tenth of sea ice is above the water surface; the other nine-tenths lie below.
To estimate the entire thickness of the ice floe, researchers will need to go beyond the above-water height
measurements, and perform calculations to account for factors like the snow on top of the ice and the
densities of the frozen layers. Scientists are eager to see the measurements turned into data on sea ice
/goddard/home/index.html), Ice (/subject/3132/ice), ICESat-2 (http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/icesat-2)
Read Full Article
IceBridge
M ORE STORIES
/index.html)
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/ridge.jpg)
Aug. 3, 2016
NASA: First Map Of Thawed Areas

Under Greenland Ice Sheet
NASA researchers have helped produce the first map showing what parts of the bottom of the massive
Greenland Ice Sheet are thawed key information in better predicting how the ice sheet will react to a
warming climate.
Greenlands thick ice sheet insulates the bedrock below from the cold temperatures at the surface, so the
bottom of the ice is often tens of degrees warmer than at the top, because the ice bottom is slowly warmed
by heat coming from the Earths depths. Knowing whether Greenlands ice lies on wet, slippery ground or is
anchored to dry, frozen bedrock is essential for predicting how this ice will flow in the future, But scientists
have very few direct observations of the thermal conditions beneath the ice sheet, obtained through fewer
than two dozen boreholes that have reached the bottom. Now, a new study synthesizes several methods
32 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

to infer the Greenland Ice Sheets basal thermal state whether the bottom of the ice is melted or not
leading to the first map that identifies frozen and thawed areas across the whole ice sheet.
(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
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(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
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(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/greenlandmelt_basalmelt_1041.jpg)
This first-of-a-kind map, showing which parts of the bottom of the Greenland Ice Sheet are likely thawed (red), frozen (blue) or still
(/)NASA TV
uncertain (gray), will help scientists better predict how the ice will flow in a warming climate.
Credits: NASA Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen
Were ultimately interested in understanding how the ice sheet flows and how it will behave in the future,
said Joe MacGregor, lead author of the study and a glaciologist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Md. If the ice at its bottom is at the melting point temperature, or thawed, then there could be
enough liquid water there for the ice to flow faster and affect how quickly it responds to climate change.
Tags: Aqua Satellite (https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/aqua/index.html), Climate (/subject

/3127/climate), Earth (/topics/earth/index.html), Goddard Space Flight Center (/centers/goddard
/home/index.html), Ice (/subject/3132/ice), IceBridge (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge
/index.html), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (/centers/jpl/home/index.html), Terra Satellite (http://www.nasa.gov
/mission_pages/terra/index.html)
Read Full Article

M ORE STORIES
Climate (/subject
/3127/climate)
July 19, 2016
2016 Climate Trends Continue to

Break Records
Two key climate change indicators -- global surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice extent -- have broken
numerous records through the first half of 2016, according to NASA analyses of ground-based
observations and satellite data.
Each of the first six months of 2016 set a record as the warmest respective month globally in the modern
temperature record, which dates to 1880, according to scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space
Studies (GISS) in New York. The six-month period from January to June was also the planet's warmest
half-year on record, with an average temperature 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer
than the late nineteenth century.
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(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
Each of the first six months of 2016 set a record as the warmest respective month globally in the modern temperature record, which
dates to 1880. Meanwhile, five of the first six months set records for the smallest monthly Arctic sea ice extent since consistent satellite
records began in 1979.
This video is public domain and can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio. (http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12306)
Five of the first six months of 2016 also set records for the smallest respective monthly Arctic sea ice
extent since consistent satellite records began in 1979, according to analyses developed by scientists at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland. The one exception, March, recorded the
second smallest extent for that month.
While these two key climate indicators have broken records in 2016, NASA scientists said it is more
significant that global temperature and Arctic sea ice are continuing their decades-long trends of change.
Both trends are ultimately driven by rising concentrations of heat-trapping carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The extent of Arctic sea ice at the peak of the summer melt season now typically covers 40 percent less
area than it did in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Arctic sea ice extent in September, the seasonal low
point in the annual cycle, has been declining at a rate of 13.4 percent per decade.
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(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/brownice1.jpg)
Chunks of sea ice, melt ponds and open water are all seen in this image captured at an altitude of 1,500 feet by the NASA's Digital
Mapping System instrument during an Operation IceBridge flight over the Chukchi Sea on Saturday, July 16, 2016.
Credits: NASA/Goddard/Operation IceBridge
()
"While the El Nio event in the tropical Pacific this winter gave a boost to global temperatures from
October onwards, it is the underlying trend which is producing these record numbers," GISS Director Gavin
Schmidt said.
Previous El Nio events have driven temperatures to what were then record levels, such as in 1998. But in
2016, even as the effects of the recent El Nio taper off, global temperatures have risen well beyond those
of 18 years ago because of the overall warming that has taken place in that time.
The global trend in rising temperatures is outpaced by the regional warming in the Arctic, said Walt Meier, a
sea ice scientist at NASA Goddard.
"It has been a record year so far for global temperatures, but the record high temperatures in the Arctic
over the past six months have been even more extreme," Meier said. "This warmth as well as unusual
weather patterns have led to the record low sea ice extents so far this year."
NASA tracks temperature and sea ice as part of its effort to understand the Earth as a system and to
understand how Earth is changing. In addition to maintaining 19 Earth-observing space missions, NASA
also sends researchers around the globe to investigate different facets of the planet at closer range. Right
now, NASA researchers are working across the Arctic to better understand both the processes driving
increased sea ice melt and the impacts of rising temperatures on Arctic ecosystems.
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NASA's long-running Operation IceBridge

campaign last week began a series of airborne
(/)NASA TV
measurements of melt ponds on the surface of the
Arctic sea ice cap. Melt ponds are shallow pools
of water that form as ice melts. Their darker
surface can absorb more sunlight and accelerate
the melting process. IceBridge is flying out of
Barrow, Alaska, during sea ice melt season to
capture melt pond observations at a scale never
before achieved. Recent studies have found that
the formation of melt ponds early in the summer is
a good predictor of the yearly minimum sea ice
extent in September.
"No one has ever, from a remote sensing (/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image

standpoint, mapped the large-scale depth of melt /2016temperature.png)
ponds on sea ice," said Nathan Kurtz, IceBridges The first six months of 2016 were the warmest six-month period in
project scientist and a sea ice researcher at NASA's modern temperature record, which dates to 1880.
Credits: NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies
NASA Goddard. "The information well collect is
going to show how much water is retained in melt
M ORE STORIES
ponds and what kind of topography is needed on

the sea ice to constrain them, which will help improve melt pond models."
Operation IceBridge is a NASA airborne mission that has been flying multiple campaigns at both poles
each year since 2009, with a goal of maintaining critical continuity of observations of sea ice and the ice
sheets of Greenland and Antarctica.
At the same time, NASA researchers began in earnest this year a nearly decade-long, multi-faceted field
study of Arctic ecosystems in Alaska and Canada. The Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) will
study how forests, permafrost and other ecosystems are responding to rising temperatures in the Arctic,
where climate change is unfolding faster than anywhere else on the planet.
ABoVE consists of dozens individual experiments that over years will study the region's changing forests,
the cycle of carbon movement between the atmosphere and land, thawing permafrost, the relationship
between fire and climate change, and more.
For more information on NASA's Earth science activities, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/earth (http://www.nasa.gov/earth)
For more information about NASA's IceBridge, visit:
www.nasa.gov/icebridge (http://www.nasa.gov/icebridge)
For more information about the ABoVE mission, visit:
http://above.nasa.gov/ (http://above.nasa.gov/)
By Patrick Lynch
(m ailto:patrick.lynch@nasa.gov?subject=2016%20Clim ate%20Trends%20Continue%20to%20Break%20Recor
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (http://www.nasa.gov/goddard) (http://www.nasa.gov
38 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

/goddard)in Greenbelt, Md.

(/)NASA TV
Last Updated: July 19, 2016
Editor: Karl Hille
Tags: Climate (/subject/3127/climate), Earth (/topics/earth/index.html), Goddard Institute for Space Studies
(/subject/6071/giss), Goddard Space Flight Center (/centers/goddard/home/index.html), Ice (/subject
/3132/ice)
Read Full Article
IceBridge
M ORE STORIES
/index.html)
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/img0480.jpg)
July 19, 2016
NASA Science Flights Target

Melting Arctic Sea Ice
This summer, with sea ice across the Arctic Ocean shrinking to below-average levels, a NASA airborne
survey of polar ice just completed its first flights. Its target: aquamarine pools of melt water on the ice
surface that may be accelerating the overall sea ice retreat.
NASAs Operation IceBridge completed the first research flight of its new 2016 Arctic summer campaign on
July 13. The science flights, which continue through July 25, are collecting data on sea ice in a year
following a record-warm winter in the Arctic.
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(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/largemeltpond14july16.jpg)
A large pool of melt water over sea ice, as seen from an Operation IceBridge flight over the Beaufort Sea on July 14, 2016. During this
summer campaign, IceBridge will map the extent, frequency and depth of melt ponds like these to help scientists forecast the Arctic sea
ice yearly minimum extent in September.
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The summer flights will map the extent, frequency and depth of melt ponds, the pools of melt water that
form on sea ice during spring and summer. Recent studies have found that the formation of melt ponds
(/)NASA TV
early in the summer is a good predictor of the sea ice yearly minimum extent in September: if there are
more ponds on the ice earlier in the melt season, they reduce the ability of sea ice to reflect solar
radiation, which leads to more melt.
Although there have been previous airborne campaigns in the Arctic, no one has ever mapped the
large-scale depth of melt ponds on sea ice using remote sensing data, said Nathan Kurtz, IceBridges
project scientist and a sea ice researcher at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The information well collect is going to show how much water is retained in melt ponds and what kind of
topography is needed on the sea ice to constrain them, which will help improve melt pond models.
This short flight campaign is operating from

Barrow, Alaska. The flights are low at an altitude
of 1500 feet (450 meters) aboard an HU-25C
Guardian Falcon aircraft from NASA's Langley
Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The plane
carries three instruments that measure changes in
the ice elevation and surface temperatures and
create color maps of sea ice.
M ORE STORIES
Operation IceBridge provides connectivity

between the measurements of polar ice between
two NASA satellite campaigns: the Ice, Cloud and
land Elevation Satellite, or ICESat, which operated
from 2003 to 2009, and its successor, ICESat-2,
scheduled to launch by 2018. The Barrow
/falconpccal.jpg)
campaign will give a glimpse into what ICESat-2 The HU-25C Guardian Falcon aircraft that Operation IceBridge is
will be able to observe in the Arctic in the using through its Barrow campaign, being tested at NASA's
summertime, since the laser altimeter IceBridge Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
carries is similar to the one that will be aboard
()
ICESat-2.
Kurtz expects that flying in the summer will allow

his team to find areas of sea ice not covered by snow, which will let them take direct measurements of the
freeboard, the fraction of sea ice that floats above the waterline. This measurement would improve studies
of sea ice thickness in the Arctic.
Flights will be shorter than the usual IceBridge Arctic flights, due to the Falcons smaller fuel capacity
compared to the P-3 aircraft that IceBridge normally uses in the Arctic. In total, IceBridge scientists are
expecting to carry out five 4-hour-long flights, each one covering 1000 nautical miles (1150 miles) and
focusing on the Beaufort and Chukchi seas north of Russia, Alaska and Canada..
The advantage of being based in Barrow is that well be starting the flights right from the waters edge,
Kurtz said.
For its annual Arctic and Antarctic campaigns, IceBridge flights follow pre-established lines selected by the
scientific community. But in Barrow, due to weather uncertainty, the mission will pursue targets of
opportunity.
The day before the flight well be looking at weather imagery and models, and Ill try to plan a flight line that
41 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

basically gets into any hole in the clouds there is, rather than following a specific path, Kurtz said.
(/)NASA
NASA's Wallops TV in Virginia provided the laser altimeter and the infrared camera that are
Flight Facility
being used during this summer campaign. IceBridge's Digital Mapping System came from NASA's Ames
Research Center at Moffett Field, California.
For more about Operation IceBridge and to follow the summer Arctic campaign, visit: http://www.nasa.gov
/icebridge (http://www.nasa.gov/icebridge)
By Maria-Jose Vias (m ailto:m aria-

/index.html)
Read Full Article

M ORE STORIES
Climate (/subject
/3127/climate)
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/p1010860jpg.jpeg)
July 8, 2016
Climate Change May Shrink Adlie

Penguin Range By End of Century
Climate has influenced the distribution patterns of Adlie penguins across Antarctica for millions of years.
The geologic record tells us that as glaciers expanded and covered Adlie breeding habitats with ice,
penguins in the region abandoned their colonies. When the glaciers melted during warming periods, the
Adlie penguins were able to return to their rocky breeding grounds.
Now, a NASA-funded study by University of Delaware scientists and colleagues at other institutions reports
that this warming may no longer be beneficial for Adlie penguins. In a paper published June 29 in the
journal Scientific Reports, the researchers project that approximately 30 percent of current Adlie colonies
may be in decline by 2060, and approximately 60 percent of the present population might be dwindling by
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2099. They also found the penguins at more southerly sites in Antarctica may be less affected by climate
change. (/multimedia/nasatv/index.html)
(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/crhs_mdl_2099_1041.png)
This graphic shows changes to the suitability of Adlie penguin breeding areas.
Credits: NASA's Earth Observatory
The study results suggest that changes in climate, particularly sustained periods of warmer than usual sea
surface temperatures, are detrimental to Adlie penguins. While the specific mechanisms for this
relationship remain unknown the study focuses attention on areas where climate change is likely to create
a high frequency of unsuitable conditions during the 21st century.
It is only in recent decades that we know Adlie

penguins population declines are associated with
warming, which suggests that many regions of
Antarctica have warmed too much and that further
warming is no longer positive for the species,
said the papers lead author, Megan Cimino, who
earned her doctoral degree at University of
Delaware in May and is now a postdoctoral
scholar at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La
Jolla, California.
The Adlie penguin is a species that breeds

across the entire Antarctic continent. The
penguins are experiencing population declines
43 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

along the West Antarctic Peninsula, which is one /p1010860jpg.jpeg)

(/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
An Adlie penguin )
of the most rapidly warming places on Earth. cares for its chicks. A new NASA-funded
(/)NASA TV study has
Conversely, Adlie populations in other areas of found that up to 60 percent of this type of penguin's
present population might be dwindling by 2099 due to climate
Antarctica where the climate is stable or even change.
cooling remain steady or are increasing. Credits: University of Delaware/Megan Cimino
The researchers objective was to understand the

effects of climate change on Antarctic Adlie
penguin colonies. The study, funded through the NASA Biodiversity program, used satellite data and global
climate model projections to understand current and future population trends on a continental scale. They
analyzed satellite observations from 1981 to 2010 of sea ice concentration and bare rock locations, as
penguins need ice- and snow-free terrain with pebbles to make their nests. The scientists also took into
account data from previous studies that had used satellite imagery to detect the presence or absence of
penguin populations. Finally, the team also analyzed sea surface temperature data, which, together with
bare rock and sea ice, was used as an indicator of the quality of penguins nesting habitats.
From other studies that used actual ground counts -- people going and physically counting penguins -- and
from high-resolution satellite imagery, we have global estimates of Adlie penguin breeding locations,
meaning where they are present and where they are absent, throughout the entire Southern Ocean. We
also have estimates of population size and how their populations have changed over last few decades,
M ORE STORIES
said Cimino. We used all these data to run habitat suitability models.
When we combined this data with satellite information and future climate projections of sea surface
temperature and sea ice, we can look at past and future changes in Adlie penguin habitat suitability,
Cimino said. "Satellite data allowed me to look at all Adlie penguin habitats throughout the entire Southern
Ocean and over multiple decades, which otherwise would not be possible using data solely collected
on land or by ship."
By analyzing past satellite observations, the researchers examined the number of years from 1981 to
2010 that had novel or unusual climate when sea surface or ice temperatures deviated from average
during the Adlie penguin chick-rearing period and then used an ensemble of global climate models to make
predictions about Adlie penguin habitat suitability from 2011 to 2099. The team validated the models with
documented population trends.
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(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/colonystatus_mdl_2099_1041.png)
This graphic shows changes to the status of Adlie penguin colonies.
Credits: NASA's Earth Observatory
According to Cimino, the southern regions of the West Antarctic Peninsula, associated islands and
northern regions of the Peninsula, which are already experiencing population declines, are projected to
experience the greatest frequency of unusual climate this century due to warm sea surface temperatures.
This suggests that warm sea surface temperatures may cause a decrease in the suitability of chick-rearing
habitats at northerly latitudes.
Penguin colonies near Palmer Station on the West Antarctic Peninsula have declined by at least 80
percent since the 1970s, Cimino said. Within this region we saw the most novel climate years compared
to the rest of the continent. This means the most years with warmer than normal sea surface temperature.
These two things seem to be happening in the West Antarctic Peninsula at a higher rate than in other
areas during the same time period.
By contrast, the study also suggests several refugiaareas of relatively unaltered climatemay exist in
continental Antarctica beyond 2099, which would buffer a species-wide decline. Understanding how these
refugia operate is critical to understanding the future of this species.
The Cape Adare region of the Ross Sea is home to the earliest known penguin occupation and has the
largest known Adlie penguin rookery in the world, Cimino said. Though the climate there is expected to
warm a bit, it looks like it could be a refugia in the future, and if you look back over geologic time it was
likely a refuge in the past,
The researchers reported that climate change impacts on penguins in the Antarctic will likely be highly
site-specific based on regional climate trends, and that a southward contraction in the range of Adlie
45 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

penguins is likely over the next century.

(/)N
Studies like ASA
this TV because they focus our attention on areas where a species is most
are important
vulnerable to change, concluded Cimino. The results can have implications for other species that live in
the area and for other ecosystem processes.
Karen B. Roberts (University of Delaware)

adapted by Maria-Jose Vias, NASAs Earth Science News Team
Read Full Article
M ORE STORIES
/index.html)
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/petty3.jpg)
April 20, 2016
IceBridge Begins Eighth Year of

Arctic Flights
Operation IceBridge, NASAs airborne survey of polar ice, completed its first Greenland research flight of
2016 on April 19, kicking off its eighth spring Arctic campaign. This years science flights over Arctic sea
and land ice will continue until May 21.
During its seven years of operations in the Arctic, IceBridge has gathered large volumes of data on
changes in the elevation of the ice sheet and its internal structure. Measurements from IceBridge have
revealed a 460-mile-long (740 kilometers) canyon hiding under a mile of ice and mapped the extent of a
vast liquid water aquifer beneath the snow in southern Greenland. IceBridges readings of the thickness of
sea ice and its snow cover have helped scientists improve forecasts for the summer melt season and
have enhanced the understanding of variations in ice thickness distribution from year to year.
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(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/oib03422adj.jpg)
A view from the plane shows the Slidre Fiord in Eureka, Canada.
Credits: NASA/Operation IceBridge/Jeremy Harbeck
()
This campaigns flights will be conducted aboard one of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administrations (NOAA) hurricane hunter planes, a P-3 Orion. NOAA is also providing a full crew and
collecting atmospheric data during the IceBridge flights. Despite being the same type of aircraft than the
one IceBridge often uses in the Arctic, the NOAA P-3 has been modified to allow it to fly into hurricanes,
which made the installation of IceBridges instruments challenging.
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(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/plane.jpeg)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations P-3 Orion airplane carrying IceBridges scientists and instruments gets ready to
take off for the Arctic campaigns first research flight from Thule Air Base, Greenland.
Credits: NASA/Operation IceBridge/John Woods
()
We had to adapt all of our instruments to work on the aircraft, because under the floor theres a fair
amount of additional structure that were not used to in our own P-3, and it affects what can be placed
under the deck and at the ports in the belly of the plane, said John Sonntag, mission scientist for
IceBridge. It all worked out, but it required some compromises.
The plane will carry a laser altimeter to measure the elevation of sea and land ice, three types of radar
instruments to study the ice layers and the bedrock underneath the ice sheet, and a high-resolution
camera technology to create color maps of polar ice. Furthermore, during this campaign IceBridge
scientists are running two types of infrared cameras to measure surface temperatures, which will allow the
accurate detection of open water and young ice thickness between sea ice floes even in flights flown
during nighttime.
The first leg of the mission will be based out of Thule Air Base in northwest Greenland and out of
Fairbanks, Alaska. Ten high-priority sea ice flights and three land flights are planned from these two sites.
The sea ice flights will collect sufficient data to give scientists a good sense of how the sea ice thickness
is distributed in the west Arctic basin, said Jackie Richter-Menge, IceBridge science team co-lead and sea
ice researcher with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
in Hanover, New Hampshire.
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This winter has been especially warm up in the Arctic, so theres a lot of speculation about how the
summer melt is going to unfold, Richter-Menge said. We know from the data IceBridge has been
(/)NASA TV
providing us that the sea ice thickness distribution in the Beaufort Sea is very important for anticipating
how the summer melt is going to go, so we want to make sure we get adequate coverage in this region to
give the modelers good data to initiate their seasonal forecasts.
The second part of the Arctic campaign will be based in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland and will focus on
gauging surface elevation changes in land ice.
Our main priority is to look at the changes that have taken place since our previous campaigns, especially
to look at fast-retreating glaciers like Jakobshavn and see how far inland theyre melting away, said Eric
Rignot, IceBridge science team co-lead and glaciologist at the University of California, Irvine and NASAs
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
There will be seven high-priority land flights for this phase of the campaign, all of them repeats of lines that
IceBridge flew during last years post-melt campaign.
By replicating most of the lines we flew in the spring and fall last year, we will look at not only yearly
changes but also at seasonal changes, and this will help evaluate regional atmospheric climate models that
reconstruct melt and snowfall on the ice sheet, Rignot said.
M ORE STORIES
As in previous years, Operation IceBridge will cooperate with several international research initiatives.
Some of the collaborations are ongoing, such as an overfly of a field site in Eureka Sound, where
scientists from Environment and Climate Change Canada are collecting measurements of the depth of the
snow cover over sea ice, and at least one flight under one of the lines followed by the European Space
Agencys CryoSat-2 satellite. But there are also two new collaborations this year: the first is with the
University of Alaska, Fairbanks. For this joint project, IceBridge will fly in a racetrack formation off the
coast of Alaska to study the transition between shore-fast ice (sea ice attached to the coastline) and
drifting ice. The second collaboration is with the recently launched European satellite Sentinel-3; weather
permitting, IceBridge will fly under one or more sections of the spacecrafts orbit.
These collaborations are important to tie our data to the big picture, said Nathan Kurtz, IceBridges
project scientist. When we fly over a group taking measurements from the ground, we can determine the
accuracy of our larger, regional airborne data. Then we can extrapolate even further by combining our
more detailed regional data with the large-scale coverage of the satellites.
continuity of measurements between ICESat missions. The original ICESat mission ended in 2009, and its
successor, ICESat-2, is scheduled for launch in 2018. Operation IceBridge is currently funded until 2019.
The planned overlap with ICESat-2 will help scientists validate the satellites measurements. NASA's
Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia provided the laser altimeter and one of the infrared cameras that are
being used during IceBridges 2016 Arctic spring campaign. IceBridge's tree radar instruments come
from the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets at the University of Kansas, while NASA's Ames
Research Center at Moffett Field, California, provided the Digital Mapping System, and the University of
Colorado loaned the second infrared camera.
For more about Operation IceBridge and to follow this year's campaign, visit: http://www.nasa.gov
/icebridge (http://www.nasa.gov/icebridge)
By Maria-Jose Vias
NASA's Earth Science News Team
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Last Updated: April 22, 2016
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Editor: Karl Hille
/index.html), ICESat-2 (http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/icesat-2), NOAA (/subject/3649/noaa)
Read Full Article
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M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/2015032713762.jpg.jpeg)
March 28, 2016
2016 Arctic Sea Ice Wintertime

Extent Hits Another Record Low
Arctic sea ice appears to have reached a record low wintertime maximum extent for the second year in a
row, according to scientists at the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and
NASA.
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(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/seaice_max_2016_03_21_4k_b_waveline.2500.jpg)
Arctic sea ice was at a record low wintertime maximum extent for the second straight year. At 5.607 million square miles, it is the lowest
maximum extent in the satellite record, and 431,000 square miles below the 1981 to 2010 average maximum extent.
()
Every year, the cap of frozen seawater floating on top of the Arctic Ocean and its neighboring seas melts
during the spring and summer and grows back in the fall and winter months, reaching its maximum yearly
extent between February and April. On March 24, Arctic sea ice extent peaked at 5.607 million square
miles (14.52 million square kilometers), a new record low winter maximum extent in the satellite record that
started in 1979. It is slightly smaller than the previous record low maximum extent of 5.612 million square
miles (14.54 million square kilometers) that occurred last year. The 13 smallest maximum extents on the
satellite record have happened in the last 13 years.
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(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
This short animation shows the Arctic sea ice freeze cycle from the last summertime minimum extent to March 24, when it reached its
wintertime maximum extent.
Download this video in HD formats from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio (https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4440)
The new record low follows record high temperatures in December, January and February around the globe
and in the Arctic. The atmospheric warmth probably contributed to this lowest maximum extent, with air
temperatures up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit above average at the edges of the ice pack where sea ice is
thin, said Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The wind patterns in the Arctic during January and February were also unfavorable to ice growth because
they brought warm air from the south and prevented expansion of the ice cover. But ultimately, what will
likely play a bigger role in the future trend of Arctic maximum extents is warming ocean waters, Meier said.
It is likely that we're going to keep seeing smaller wintertime maximums in the future because in addition to
a warmer atmosphere, the ocean has also warmed up. That warmer ocean will not let the ice edge expand
as far south as it used to, Meier said. Although the maximum reach of the sea ice can vary a lot each
year depending on winter weather conditions, were seeing a significant downward trend, and thats
ultimately related to the warming atmosphere and oceans. Since 1979, that trend has led to a loss of
620,000 square miles of winter sea ice cover, an area more than twice the size of Texas.
This years record low sea ice maximum extent will not necessarily result in a subsequent record low
summertime minimum extent, Meier said. Summer weather conditions have a larger impact than the extent
of the winter maximum in the outcome of each years melt season; warm temperatures and summer storms
make the ice melt fast, while if a summer is cool, the melt slows down.
Arctic sea ice plays an important role in maintaining Earths temperatureits bright white surface reflects
solar energy that the ocean would otherwise absorb. But this effect is more relevant in the summer, when
the sun is high in the sky in the Arctic, than in the winter, when the sun doesnt rise for months within the
Arctic Circle. In the winter, the impact of missing sea ice is mostly felt in the atmosphere, said Jennifer
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Francis, a climate scientist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

In places(/)
NASA
where TV
sea ice has been lost, those areas of open water will put more heat into the atmosphere
because the air is much colder than unfrozen sea water, Francis said. As winter sea ice disappears,
areas of unusually warm air temperatures in the Arctic will expand. These are also areas of increased
evaporation, and the resulting water vapor will contribute to increased cloudiness, which in winter, further
warms the surface.
Related Links
Read Full Article
IceBridge
M ORE STORIES
Nov. 24, 2015
/index.html)
NASAs Operation IceBridge
Completes Twin Polar Campaigns
NASAs Operation IceBridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, recently finalized two overlapping campaigns
at both of Earths poles. Down south, the mission observed a big drop in the height of two glaciers situated
in the Antarctic Peninsula, while in the north it collected much needed measurements of the status of land
and sea ice at the end of the Arctic summer melt season.
This was the first time in its seven years of operations that IceBridge carried out parallel flights in the
Arctic and Antarctic. Every year, the mission flies to the Arctic in the spring and to Antarctica in the fall to
keep collect an uninterrupted record of yearly changes in the height of polar ice.
But this year IceBridge added a fall campaign in the Arctic to shed light on the impact of the melt season
on the Greenland Ice Sheet and nearby sea ice the mission had only carried this supplementary
campaign once before, in 2013. The new post-melt measurements will help interpret and calibrate the
remote data collected by operational satellites such as the European Space Agencys CryoSat-2 and
prepare for the data from NASAs upcoming Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2).
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M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/heimdal.jpg)
Heimdal Glacier in southern Greenland, in an image captured on Oct. 13, 2015, from NASA Langley Research Center's Falcon 20
aircraft flying 33,000 feet above mean sea level.
Repeated Tracks Ov er the Arctic
The Arctic campaign, dubbed IceBridge North, began on Sept. 24, when IceBridge researchers onboard
NASA Langley Research Center's Falcon 20 aircraft flew their first mission from Thule Air Base in
northwest Greenland. Due to the Falcon being smaller than IceBridges usual ride in the Arctic, a P-3
Orion, the mission carried a limited set of instruments: a laser altimeter called the Airborne Topographic
Mapper (ATM), a photographic mapper called the Digital Mapping System (DMS), and an experimental
infrared camera.
Whenever possible, IceBridge flew two three-and-a half-hour missions per day. In total, IceBridge North
carried 22 flights, including all of its planned land ice missions. But poor weather only allowed for three out
of the six planned sea ice flights.
Another difference with IceBridges regular Arctic campaigns was that all of the flights were repeats of
missions flown in the 2015 spring campaign.
The main focus of the IceBridge North campaign was to get direct measurements of how much snow and
ice has disappeared over the summer, said John Sonntag, IceBridge mission scientist. The way you get
a direct measurement of this is by surveying the elevation along some flight lines in the spring, doing it
again in the early fall, and then comparing the data.
Satellites such as CryoSat-2, and ICESat-2 in the future, take measurements all year round, said Nathan
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Kurtz, IceBridges project scientist and a sea ice

researcher with NASAs Goddard Space Flight
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Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. So we need to
sample the poles at different times of the year to
get a better handle of the seasonal cycles of the
ice. That will help us validate the satellite data and
calibrate numerical models that track ice sheet
gains and losses.
Ice Losses In the Antarctic Peninsula
IceBridges Antarctic campaign, or IceBridge

South, based in Punta Arenas, Chile, began with
its first successful flight on Sept. 24. This year, the
mission used a Gulfstream G-V aircraft, owned by
the National Science Foundation. Despite being
smaller than the plane IceBridge usually deploys in
the Antarctic campaign, a Douglas DC-8, the G-V
is also faster and flies at high altitude, allowing it
to cover more ground. The aircraft carried the
M ORE STORIES
Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS), a laser

altimeter that maps large areas of sea and land
ice from a high altitude, and another DMS
photographic mapper. (/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image
/lvis_palmer.jpg)
In total, the southern campaign completed 16 A glacier winds between peaks in the Antarctic Peninsula as seen
research flights totaling 172 hours. IceBridge on Oct. 3, 2015, from the NCAR G-V aircraft during Operation
South achieved extensive areal coverage from IceBridge's southern campaign.
Credits: NASA/David Rabine
Marie Byrd Land to the Antarctic Peninsula,
including the fast-changing Pine Island and
Thwaites areas as well as the Bellingshausen and
Weddell Seas. Over 58,000 square miles (150,000 square kilometers) of land and sea ice were surveyed,
the largest survey by area achieved by Icebridge.
This is an exciting achievement for the team, said Michelle Hofton, Icebridge and LVIS Mission Scientist
at the University of Maryland, College Park. The extensive data set we collected from the the G-V over
Antarctica will not only provide scientists with information to study changes in sea and land ice that are
happening now, but will also create a comprehensive baseline against which future measurements will be
compared.
Furthermore, the weather cooperated and the IceBridge team was able to complete several flights over the
Antarctic Peninsula, an area that is usually very difficult to survey because of its persistent thick cloud
cover.
During one flight in the Peninsula that mapped the drainage area of several glaciers, LVIS measured a drop
of more than 490 feet (150 meters) in the height of two glaciers since IceBridge last plotted them, in 2009.
Both glaciers, called Green and Hektoria, were tributaries to the Larsen B ice shelf, which disintegrated in
2002. After the ice shelf collapsed, it stopped buttressing the glaciers that fed it, and glacier elevations
have fallen dramatically since then.
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A study published in 2012 showed average elevation losses of up to 82 feet (25 meters) per year for the
lower Green and Hektoria glaciers from 2006 to 2011. So IceBridges discovery that both are still losing
(/)NASA TV
ice fast many years after the loss of the adjacent ice shelf is not all that surprising given what we have
observed with other sensors, said Christopher Shuman, a University of Maryland, Baltimore County
glaciologist working at Goddard and co-author of the 2012 report.
Field data suggests that theres been a modest cooling in the area over the 20092015 time period, and
images collected during that time by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on the Terra and
Aqua satellites show more persistent fast ice [sea ice that is attached to the shore] in the Larsen A and
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M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/antarcticseaicemax2015printnodatenoave.7768.jpg)
Oct. 15, 2015
2015 Antarctic Maximum Sea Ice

Extent Breaks Streak of Record
Highs
The sea ice cover of the Southern Ocean reached its yearly maximum extent on Oct. 6. At 7.27 million
square miles (18.83 million square kilometers), the new maximum extent falls roughly in the middle of the
record of Antarctic maximum extents compiled during the 37 years of satellite measurements this years
maximum extent is both the 22nd lowest and the 16th highest. More remarkably, this years maximum is
quite a bit smaller than the previous three years, which correspond to the three highest maximum extents
in the satellite era, and is also the lowest since 2008.
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(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
Antarctic sea ice likely reached its annual maximum extent on Oct. 6, barring a late season surge. This video shows the evolution of the
sea ice cover of the Southern Ocean from its minimum yearly extent to its peak extent.
Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Download in HD at NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio (https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=4368)
The growth of Antarctic sea ice was erratic this year: sea ice was at much higher than normal levels
throughout much of the first half of 2015 until, in mid-July, it flattened out and even went below normal
levels in mid-August. The sea ice cover recovered partially in September, but still this years maximum
extent is 513,00 square miles (1.33 million square kilometers) below the record maximum extent, which
was set in 2014. Scientists believe this years strong El Nio event, a natural phenomenon that warms the
surface waters of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, had an impact on the behavior of the sea ice
cover around Antarctica. El Nio causes higher sea level pressure, warmer air temperature and warmer
sea surface temperature in the Amundsen, Bellingshausen and Weddell seas in west Antarctica that affect
the sea ice distribution.
After three record high extent years, this year marks a return toward normalcy for Antarctic sea ice, said
Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. There may
be more high years in the future because of the large year-to-year variation in Antarctic extent, but such
extremes are not near as substantial as in the Arctic, where the declining trend towards a new normal is
continuing.
This years maximum extent occurred fairly late: the mean date of the Antarctic maximum is Sept. 23 for
1981-2010.
Maria-Jos Vias (m ailto:m aria-jose.vinasgarcia@nasa.gov?subject=RE

%3A%202015%20Antarctic%20Sea%20Ice%20Maxim um )
57 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

Last Updated: Oct. 15, 2015

Editor: Rob Garner
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IceBridge
Sept. 23, 2015
/index.html)
NASA to Fly Parallel Science
M ORE STORIES
Campaigns at Both Poles
For the first time NASAs Operation IceBridge is flying simultaneous missions over both the Arctic and Antarctic, on smaller, faster
aircraft. These campaigns and aircraft represent both a unique opportunity for measuring polar ice, and something of a scientific
tradeoff from IceBridges traditional campaigns.
Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
For the first time in its seven years of flights, NASA's Operation IceBridge, an airborne survey of changes
58 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

in Earths polar ice, is conducting overlapping campaigns in Antarctica and the Arctic. Since 2009,
IceBridge has studied Antarctic ice conditions each fall, but this year a new field campaign has been added
(/)NASA TV
to collect measurements of sea and land ice in the Arctic to provide insight into the impact of the summer
melt season.
M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/arctic-antarctic-icebridge_0.jpg)
Operation IceBridges planned flight lines over Arctic and Antarctic land and sea ice in Sept-Nov. 2015.
The Antarctic campaign was the first to kick off on Sept. 22, as IceBridge successfully completed its first
research flight over the southernmost continent. Antarctic flights continue until Nov. 2. The first flight of the
Arctic campaign is scheduled for Sept. 23, weather permitting, with ongoing flights until Oct. 23.
Up North
The Arctic campaign team will fly aboard NASA Langley Research Center's Falcon 20 aircraft. The plane
will carry three instruments: a laser altimeter called the Airborne Topographic Mapper, a high-resolution
camera technology called the Digital Mapping System (DMS), which allows researchers to create maps of
polar ice, and an experimental infrared camera.
One of the main challenges of this campaign will be racing to catch enough hours of sunlight, said John
Sonntag, mission scientist for the Arctic campaign.
This time of the year in the Arctic, we lose seven minutes of sunlight every day, Sonntag said. By the
time we end the campaign, well only have about nine hours of daylight a day, barely enough to squeeze in
our daily two three-and-a-half-hour flights, plus refueling.
The first leg of the Arctic post-melt season mission will be based out of Thule Air Base in northwest
Greenland. Four land ice flights and six sea ice flights are planned from there.
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(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
(/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/15683810948_a18602c53e_o.jpg)
Sea ice in the Bellingshausen Sea seen by the Digital Mapping System instrument during the 2014 Antarctic campaign of Operation
IceBridge.
Credits: NASA / DMS Team
The spring campaigns let us get a good look at the variability in the conditions of the sea ice cover -- and
the snow on top of it -- on an annual basis, said Jackie Richter-Menge, IceBridge science team co-lead
with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover,
N.H. The new campaign is going to give us a chance to look at how ice thickness varies within the year,
specifically changes that occurred over the summer melt season.
The highest priority during this campaign will be flying the flight paths that the mission successfully carried
last spring so that researchers can compare the measurements taken during both campaigns and see how
the spring and summer melt season has thinned the ice. Some tweaks in the flight paths will also allow
IceBridge to fly under some of the tracks of the European Space Agencys CryoSat-2 satellite.
Nathan Kurtz, IceBridges project scientist and a sea ice researcher at NASAs Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md., said his team hopes that flying shortly after the melt season has ended will allow
them to find areas of sea ice not covered by snow, which will let them take direct measurements of the
freeboard, the fraction of sea ice that floats above the waterline and makes up one-eighth of the thickness
of the ice floes.
The second leg of the Arctic campaign will be based in Kangerlussuaq, in western Greenland. IceBridge
will fly more than a dozen land ice missions, again prioritizing flight paths that were flown in the spring
campaign. Among other targets the Falcon will fly over is the Jakobshavn ice stream, the fastest-melting
glacier in the world, which lost a large area of ice in August.
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Jakobshavns rate of thinning is not uniform during the year, so we are interested in finding out how much
ice this glacier lost during this summer, said Eric Rignot, IceBridge science team co-lead and glaciologist
(/)NASA TV
at the University of California, Irvine, and NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
But more importantly, this campaigns measurements will allow scientists to evaluate models of ice sheet
melt.
There are few sites in Greenland where we have measured melt at the surface, and lots of places where
we dont know how well these models are doing, Rignot said. So by gathering this altimetry data at the
/index.html)
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M ORE STORIES
/index.html)
Sept. 15, 2015
RELEASE 15-187
Arctic Sea Ice Summertime

Minimum Is Fourth Lowest on
Record
According to a NASA analysis of satellite data, the 2015 Arctic sea ice minimum extent is the fourth lowest
on record since observations from space began.
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(/)NASA TV
M ORE STORIES
This animation shows the evolution of the Arctic sea ice cover from its wintertime maximum extent, which was reached on Feb. 25, 2015,
and was the lowest on record, to its apparent yearly minimum, which occurred on Sept. 11, 2015, and is the fourth lowest in the satellite
era.
Credits: NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio
Download this video in HD formats from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio (http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin
/details.cgi?aid=4355)
The analysis by NASA and the NASA-supported

National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at
the University of Colorado at Boulder showed the
annual minimum extent was 1.70 million square
miles (4.41 million square kilometers) on Sept. 11.
This years minimum is 699,000 square miles
(1.81 million square kilometers) lower than the
1981-2010 average.
Arctic sea ice cover, made of frozen seawater that

floats on top of the ocean, helps regulate the (/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/15-187b.jpg)
planets temperature by reflecting solar energy The 2015 Arctic sea ice summertime minimum is 699,000 square
back to space. The sea ice cap grows and shrinks miles below the 1981-2010 average, shown here as a gold line.
cyclically with the seasons. Its minimum Credits: NASA/Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio
summertime extent, which occurs at the end of the

melt season, has been decreasing since the late
1970s in response to warming temperatures.
In some recent years, low sea-ice minimum extent has been at least in part exacerbated by meteorological
factors, but that was not the case this year.
This year is the fourth lowest, and yet we havent seen any major weather event or persistent weather
pattern in the Arctic this summer that helped push the extent lower as often happens, said Walt Meier, a
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sea ice scientist with NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. It was a bit warmer in
some areas than last year, but it was cooler in other places, too.
(/)NASA TV
In contrast, the lowest year on record, 2012, saw a powerful August cyclone that fractured the ice cover,
accelerating its decline.
The sea ice decline has accelerated since 1996. The 10 lowest minimum extents in the satellite record
have occurred in the last 11 years. The 2014 minimum was 1.94 million square miles (5.03 million square
kilometers), the seventh lowest on record. Although the 2015 minimum appears to have been reached,
there is a chance that changing winds or late-season melt could reduce the Arctic extent even further in
the next few days.
The ice cover becomes less and less resilient, and it doesnt take as much to melt it as it used to, Meier
said. The sea ice cap, which used to be a solid sheet of ice, now is fragmented into smaller floes that are
more exposed to warm ocean waters. In the past, Arctic sea ice was like a fortress. The ocean could only
attack it from the sides. Now its like the invaders have tunneled in from underneath and the ice pack melts
from within.
Some analyses have hinted the Arctics multiyear sea ice, the oldest and thickest ice that survives the
summer melt season, appeared to have recuperated partially after the 2012 record low. But according to
Joey Comiso, a sea ice scientist at Goddard, the recovery flattened last winter and will likely reverse after
M ORE STORIES
this melt season.
The thicker ice will likely continue to decline, Comiso said. There might be some recoveries during some
years, especially when the winter is unusually cold, but it is expected to go down again because the
surface temperature in the region continues to increase.
This year, the Arctic sea ice cover experienced relatively slow rates of melt in June, which is the month the
Arctic receives the most solar energy. However, the rate of ice loss picked up during July, when the sun is
still strong. Faster than normal ice loss rates continued through August, a transition month when ice loss
typically begins to slow. A big hole appeared in August in the ice pack in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas,
north of Alaska, when thinner seasonal ice surrounded by thicker, older ice melted. The huge opening
allowed for the ocean to absorb more solar energy, accelerating the melt.
Its unclear whether this years strong El Nio event, which is a naturally occurring phenomenon that
typically occurs every two to seven years where the surface water of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean
warms, has had any impact on the Arctic sea ice minimum extent.
Historically, the Arctic had a thicker, more rigid sea ice that covered more of the Arctic basin, so it was
difficult to tell whether El Nio had any effect on it, said Richard Cullather, a climate modeler at Goddard.
Although we havent been able to detect a strong El Nio impact on Arctic sea ice yet, now that the ice is
thinner and more mobile, we should begin to see a larger response to atmospheric events from lower
latitudes.
In comparison, research has found a strong link between El Nio and the behavior of the sea ice cover
around Antarctica. El Nio causes higher sea level pressure, warmer air temperature and warmer sea
surface temperature in west Antarctica that affect sea ice distribution. This could explain why this year the
growth of the Antarctic sea ice cover, which currently is headed toward its yearly maximum extent and was
at much higher than normal levels throughout much of the first half of 2015, dipped below normal levels in
mid-August.
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Starting next week, NASAs Operation IceBridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, will be carrying science
flights over sea ice in the Arctic, to help validate satellite readings and provide insight into the impact of the
(/)NASA TV
summer melt season on land and sea ice.
NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives,
and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural
systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with
institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.
Tags: Climate (/subject/3127/climate), Earth (/topics/earth/index.html), Ice (/subject/3132/ice), Water

(/subject/3135/water)
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Page Last Updated: Aug. 18, 2016
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NASA Study Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater Than Losses NASA

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NASA Study Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater Than Losses NASA

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NASA Study: Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater than Losses | NASA https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/nasa-study-mass-gains-of-antarctic...

Oct. 30, 2015

NASA Study: Mass Gains of

A new NASA study says that an increase in

The research challenges the conclusions of other

According to the new analysis of satellite data, the

a glaciologist with NASA Goddard Space Flight

1 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

But it might only take a few decades for

The study analyzed changes in the surface height

2 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

Learn more about this study (http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/igsoc/jog/pre-prints

Maria-Jos Vias (m ailto:m aria-

Last Updated: Aug. 18, 2016

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ranges around the world.

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5 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

Antarctica and high-mountain Asia

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Read Full Article

Dec. 12, 2016

What Satellites Can Tell Us About

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Long-term polar bear declines

Polar bears depend on sea ice for nearly all

per year over the 1979-2015 period. Currently, the

8 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

Drought and m ountain lions

The southwestern United States is expected to

change. The resulting loss of vegetation will not

To estimate the numbers and distribution of mule

9 de 64 04/01/2017 11:53 p.m.

Longer journeys for wild reindeer

The Taimyr reindeer herd in the northernmost

Reindeer populations are declining all over the

Petrov examined historical data going back to

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NASAs AGU website (http://www.nasa.gov /agu)

Tags: Aqua Satellite (https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/aqua/index.html), Benefits to You (/topics/benefits

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Nov. 18, 2016

NASA Nears Finish Line of Annual

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explore: not only space, but also our home planet.

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since satellites dont overfly it.

"We are very satisfied that we flew all of our

One of this years missions flew over a massive

Ice shelves are the floating parts of ice streams

The IceBridge scientists measured the Larsen C

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instrument suite. Once we process our data and

During her stay in Punta Arenas, Newman met

We love working with our Chilean colleagues:

IceBridge also welcomed U.S. Ambassador to

NASA's Operation IceBridge website (http://www.nasa.gov /icebridge)

By Maria-Jose Vias (m ailto:m aria-

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Last Updated: Nov. 18, 2016

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Nov. 14, 2016

Extremely Warm 2015-16 Winter

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