Low-level aerial surveys aim to understand rapid Antarctic melting

September 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Using satellite lasers, scientists have made the most comprehensive picture of the rapidly thinning glaciers along the coastline of both the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Researchers from British Antarctic Survey and the University of Bristol describe how analysis of millions of NASA satellite measurements from both of these vast ice sheets shows that the most profound ice loss is a result of glaciers speeding up where they flow into the sea.

September 23rd, 2009 NASA data: Greenland, Antarctic ice melt worseningWASHINGTON — New satellite information shows that ice sheets in Greenland and western Antarctica continue to shrink faster than scientists thought and in some places are already in runaway melt mode. British scientists for the first time calculated changes in the height of the vulnerable but massive ice sheets and found them especially worse at their edges.

September 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a major research study, the link between declining carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the earth's atmosphere and the formation of the Antarctic ice caps some 34 million years ago has been confirmed for the first time. The research was carried out by a team of scientists from Cardiff, Bristol and Texas A and M universities, in a small East African village, where they extracted microfossils in samples of rocks which show the level of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere at the time of the formation of the ice-cap.

September 13th, 2009 LONDON - The link between declining carbon dioxide levels and the formation of Antarctic ice caps some 34 million years ago has been established in a major research study. A team of scientists from Cardiff, Bristol and Texas A&M universities worked in Stakishari, a small East African village, to extract microfossils in rock samples which show the level of carbon dioxide at the time of the formation of the ice-cap.

September 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists, in a new research, have found that about 34 million years ago, Antarctica had more room for ice than previously thought. Scientists from the University of California, Santa Barbara, US, carried out the research.

August 14th, 2009 LONDON - A new research has determined that one of the largest glaciers in Antarctica is thinning four times faster than it was 10 years ago. Professor Duncan Wingham of University College London (UCL) led the research team.

July 7th, 2009 SYDNEY - The melting of West Antarctic ice sheet, Antarctica's most vulnerable part, could raise global sea levels by up to five metres. "Polar ice sheets have grown and collapsed at least 40 times over the past five million years, causing major sea-level fluctuations," says Tim Naish, deputy director of Victoria University's Antarctic Research Centre (ARC).

June 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt, it would raise sea level 7 meters, leading to massive waves of climate refugees. According to a report in Environmental News Network (ENN), this is a warning made by Lester R.

May 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - If the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapses due to global warming, it would directly threaten New York, Washington and San Francisco as sea levels near US coasts would rise by 25 percent more than the global average, according to a new study. Antarctica holds about nine times the volume of ice of Greenland.

May 14th, 2009 Researchers scale back forecast of sea level riseWASHINGTON — The global sea level will only rise about 10 feet if the West Antarctic ice sheet collapses. While that may not sound so great to residents of coastal cities like New York or Los Angeles, it's only about half the previously predicted rise.

May 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - New Antarctic seabed sonar images have revealed that the extent of ice covering the continent of Antarctica at the end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago was much larger than it is today, which could help scientists to predict future sea-level rise. Using sonar technology from onboard ships, scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the German Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) captured the most extensive, continuous set of images of the seafloor around the Amundsen Sea embayment ever taken.

April 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has determined that increased growth in Antarctic sea ice during the past 30 years is a result of changing weather patterns caused by the ozone hole. The research, done by scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and NASA, indicates that while there has been a dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice, Antarctic sea ice has increased by a small amount as a result of the ozone hole delaying the impact of greenhouse gas increases on the climate of the continent.

April 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A study, which is being touted as controversial, has said that fossil coral reefs at a Mexican theme park "confirm" that sea levels rose rapidly about 121,000 years ago. Previous research on fossil reefs had shown that sea levels surged by 13 to 19 feet (4 to 6 meters) near the end of the last time period between ice ages, known as an interglacial period.

March 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - New evidence has emerged which determines that even a slight rise in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, one of the gases that drives global warming, affects the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The massive WAIS covers the continent on the Pacific side of the Transantarctic Mountains.

March 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists are taking the help of a robot submarine to travel under an Antarctic glacier and learn why it has been thinning and accelerating over recent decades. Autosub, the robot submarine built and developed by the UK's National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, has been exploring Pine Island Glacier, a floating extension of the West Antarctic ice sheet, using sonar scanners to map the seabed and the underside of the ice as it juts into the sea.