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Unmanned flights give peek at melting ice
Washington (UPI) Jul 16, 2008 Aircraft flying over Greenland will offer a view of the melting Greenland Ice Sheet and its potential for raising the global sea level, U.S. scientists said. The two unmanned Manta planes will help scientists determine whether the ice sheet's melt rate will accelerate, Betsy Weatherhead of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory said in a news release. A view of the region from 500-1,000 feet above the ice can provide fine-scale measurements of the water and surface of the glaciers, said Weatherhead, a scientist for the Arctic test bed of NOAA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems program. The Mantas can provide that view, cruising at low altitudes over little-known terrain without endangering humans. The Greenland Ice Sheet is shrinking at a rate of 40-50 cubic miles annually, a pace that's accelerating, NOAA said. Better observations could help explain the role of short-lived surface lakes and why the edges of the ice sheet are melting so fast. "We're concerned that as temperatures rise, more heat will cause more melting, more melting will create bigger lakes, and the rate of ice loss will accelerate," said NOAA's John Adler, the project manager. The unmanned flights will last three weeks. Related Links Beyond the Ice Age
Melting ice floe prompts evacuation
Moscow (UPI) Jul 12, 2008 Plans were under way to evacuate a team of Russian scientists from their camp on an ice floe in the Arctic after it started melting sooner than expected. |
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