A study conducted by NASA, based on an innovative technique for crunching torrents of satellite data, provided a clear picture of changes in Antarctic ice flow into the ocean. The findings confirm increased ice losses from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
The computer-vision technique analyzed data from NASA-U.S. Geological Survey Landsat satellite images to produce a high-precision picture of changes in ice-sheet motion.
The new work provides a baseline for measurement of Antarctic ice changes and can be used to validate numerical ice sheet models that are necessary to make projections of sea level.
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The research team’s biggest discovery was the steady flow of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The study also confirmed that the flow of West Antarctica’s Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers into the ocean continues to accelerate, though the acceleration is slowing.
The novelty of the new software is that it tracks features across hundreds of thousands of images per year, even those of varying quality or obscured by clouds.
The study’s lead author, and cryospheric researcher Alex Gardner said:
We’ll be able to use this information to target field campaigns, and understand the processes causing these changes. Over the next decade, all this is going to lead to rapid improvement in our knowledge of how ice sheets respond to changes in ocean and atmospheric conditions, knowledge that will ultimately help to inform projections of sea level change.
