The main points highlighted in the article “Greenhouse Gases Up in 2010; Glacial Melt Study Begins” by Charlene Porter, IIP Digital, 10 November, 2011 are given below:
- According to the annual survey by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) a steadily upward trend of GHG concentration in the atmosphere is being observed.
- The Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI) climbed to 1.29 in 2010 compared to 1.27 in 2009 that means the combined heating effect of long-lived GHGs added to the atmosphere by human activities has increased by 29 percent since 1990.
- The AGGI is based on atmospheric data collected through an international cooperative air sampling network that monitors more than 100 sites around the world.
- IPCC has calculated that world sea levels rose at an average rate of about 3.1 millimeters per year from 1993 to 2003.
- An international team of researchers backed by NASA, the National Science Foundation will be studying the changes in the water circulating underneath the ice shelf of the Pine Island Glacier that is undergoing accelerated melting and could contribute significantly to sea level rise.
- NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, satellite measurements show a decline in the ice cover and have highlighted the possibility that the Pine Island Glacier would melt completely in the future.
- A number of methods would be employed to measure the shape of the cavity underneath the ice shelf and to determine impact of warmer ocean waters flow into the cavity.
- In the view of the Director of the Division of Antarctic Sciences at the National Science Foundation the melting of Pine Island Glacier could have a significant impact on global sea-level rise over the coming century.
- A hot water drill will be used to bore down through the ice shelf; a camera will be sent to observe the underside of the ice shelf, the sea floor; an instrument will measure the temperature, salinity, the water currents along with instruments to measure the exchange of heat between ice and water and the speed of heat transmission through the ice.
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