NASA satellites reveal vast snow melt on Antarctica

Wed May 16, 3:12 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Rising temperatures caused a layer of snow

blanketing a California-sized region of Antarctica to melt, US space

agency

NASA said in a statement on Tuesday.

A team of scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in

Pasadena, California, and the University of Colorado said new

satellite imagery had revealed a vast expanse of snow melt in 2005

where it had previously been considered unlikely.

The NASA statement described the findings as "the most significant

melt observed using satellites during the past three decades."

Konrad Steffen, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in

Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, said it was the

first time melting on such a scale had been detected.

"Antarctica has shown little to no warming in the recent past with the

exception of the Antarctic Peninsula, but now large regions are

showing the first signs of the impacts of warming," said Steffen.

"Increases in snowmelt, such as this in 2005, definitely could have an

impact on larger-scale melting of Antarctica's ice sheets if they were

severe or sustained over time."

The melting occurred in multiple areas, including far inland, at high

latitudes and high elevations, where melt had once been considered

unlikely.

The melting was discovered using satellite scatterometry, a

sophisticated imaging system which is able to distinguish between

recently frozen ice or snow from snow that has been frozen for years.

The 2005 melt was intense enough to create an extensive ice layer when

water refroze after the melt, the statement said. However, the melt

was not prolonged enough for the melt water to flow into the sea.

Steffen said water from melted snow could penetrate ice sheets through

cracks and glacial shafts known as moulins, which can cause the ice

mass to slip and move toward the ocean faster.

Son Nghiem, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said while no further

melting had been detected through March this year, more monitoring is

needed.

"Satellite scatterometry is like an X-ray that sees through snow and

finds ice layers beneath as early as possible," he said.

"It is vital we continue monitoring this region to determine if a

long-term trend may be developing."

The full results from the study "Snow Accumulation and Snowmelt

Monitoring in Greenland and Antarctica," appears in a recently

published book "Dynamic Planet," the statement added.

posted to ClimateConcern