What's Under All That Ice?

Kangerdlugssuaq glacier calving, Greenland (credit: USGS, ESA, Landsat-7)

Greenland is covered in ice that in some places it is 2 miles thick. The giant island's ice is also melting at an accelerating rate due to climate change. Within the past two decades powerful, new satellites have exponentially expanded understanding of the island's ice.

These robots now carry remote sensing equipment that includes powerful ice-penetrating radar, environmental sensors, and aerial monitoring capabilities. The technology can peer though the ice to see the landscape hidden below. The resulting maps and scientific measurements have created a revolution in "ice science" (glaciology). Geology professor Kristin Poinar provides a good explanation of a ermote sensing revolution at a recent TED conference. Anyone living in or near a coastline, should be interested to learn what is happening on Greenland. WHB

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