Study - NASA Imaging Shows That There's Far More Meltwater Sitting On Top Of Antarctic Ice Shelves Than Thought

A detailed new analysis of NASA satellite images shows there is much more meltwater sitting atop Antarctica’s ice shelves than previously estimated, much of it in huge slush zones that haven’t been carefully mapped until now. The new information will help determine how vulnerable the shelves are to cracking and disintegration, according to an international team of scientists who published their findings in Nature Geoscience this week.

Human-caused climate heating means more meltwater forms on the surface of the ice shelves, which are the floating extensions of Antarctica’s giant glaciers. When ice shelves crumble and collapse, it can speed the flow of the land-based ice to the sea and raise the rate of sea level rise.

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But up to now, it’s been difficult to accurately map the slush zones because they are hard to distinguish from surrounding areas, said lead author Rebecca Dell, a glaciologist at Cambridge University’s Scott Polar Research Institute. “Slush can look like shadows from clouds, or other things, when seen by satellites,” she said. “But using machine learning techniques, we can get a clearer picture of how slush might be affecting ice in Antarctica.”

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The collapse of Larsen B, located along the Antarctic Peninsula, stunned ice scientists and helped reinforce that global warming is likely to trigger more such events. Subsequent research suggested that another .5 degree Celsius increase of Earth’s average temperature could push Antarctic ice shelves past the point of no return. The new research suggests there may be more water on the surface of ice shelves than previously thought from studies that just looked at lakes, she said. “This is important for scientists like myself who create computer simulations of where Antarctica is melting, and how that might change in the future,” she said. “This has implications for sea level rise, as Antarctica’s ice shelves act to hold back, or buttress the Antarctic ice sheets. If ice shelves collapse, we are in danger of increased sea level change.”

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27062024/antarctic-ice-warming-slush-zones/