iTWire - Spy satellites map climate change

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Spy satellites map climate change

David Heath
Tuesday, 28 July 2009 17:36

Science - Climate

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Quoting from the USGS website, "The town of Barrow, Alaska, is on the coast of the Beaufort Sea. Landfast ice forms along the coast in the winter, and generally melts or breaks away by mid July. At this time of year the pack ice can be close to shore (as in 2006) or farther off shore (as in 2007).

"Changes in the timing of fast ice breakup, and in the location of pack ice offshore, have significant local impacts. For example, subsistence hunters use ice as a hunting platform, polar bears hunt on the ice, favoring the biologically productive ice edge, and barges and other non-ice-strengthened vessels re-supply the North Slope when fast ice is gone. The image series monitors changes in the timing of fast ice breakup, and gives information on smaller scale properties of ice, such as the number and orientation of pressure ridges, that help biologists understand how ice is used by polar bears. (Weathered ice ridges are the light linear features in the 2006 image)."

Further to these sites, there are others inside the Arctic Circle with similar results.

Additionally, the USGS site shows two glaciers on the north western coast showing extensive retreat – for instance, there is a downloadable movie showing a time-lapse sequence of the South Cascade Glacier (in Washington State) from 1958 until 2006. There are also data for a large variety of sites across continental USA.

Reference sites in Antarctica are coming soon.

This is real evidence for global warming - we should all take heed.

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