NASA launching advanced laser to measure Earth's changing ice

[Rhiannon12866]

Next month, NASA will launch into space the most advanced laser instrument of its kind, beginning a mission to measure – in unprecedented detail – changes in the heights of Earth's polar ice.

Called the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), the mission is currently scheduled to launch in mid-September. ICESat-2 will measure elevation changes on Earth, one laser pulse at a time,

The mission will measure the average annual elevation change of land ice covering Greenland and Antarctica to within the width of a pencil, capturing an unbelievable 60,000 measurements every second. To put this more in perspective, the decadal mission will measure the changing thickness of individual patches of ice from season to season and year to year.

"The areas that we're talking about are vast — think the size of the continental U.S. or larger — and the changes that are occurring over them can be very small," Tom Wagner, a NASA scientist studying the world's ice, said during a news conference on August 22, reports Space.com. "They benefit from an instrument that can make repeat measurements in a very precise way over a large area, and that's why satellites are an ideal way to study them."


Much more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/technology/nasa-launching-advanced-laser-to-measure-earth-s-changing-ice/article/530304#ixzz5P80Szf6r


ICESat-2 Adds the Third Dimension to Earth

ICESat-2 will provide scientists with height measurements that create a global portrait of Earth's third dimension, gathering data that can precisely track changes of terrain including glaciers, sea ice, forests and more. The single instrument on ICESat-2 is ATLAS, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System, will measure melting ice sheets and investigate how this effects sea level rise, investigate changes in the mass of ice sheets and glaciers, estimate and study sea ice thickness, and measure the height of vegetation in forests and other ecosystems worldwide. "Eternal Circle," Laurent Dury, Koka Media SACEM Complete transcript available.

[Duppers]

1. Thanks for posting this, Rhiannon.

This info is necessary to keep close track of advancing GCC.



Wish folks in General Discussion would read E&E Group regularly. It might just chance some's perspective.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Thank you! It sounded like an encouraging plan to me, at least we'd know for sure what's happening

And since I read and post here in E&E on a regular basis - I often wish that the environmental news I run across in GD would be cross posted here.