NASA satellite images reveal dramatic melting in Antarctica after record heat wave – CBS News

Earlier this month, temperature levels in Antarctica appeared to reach a record-breaking 64.9 degrees Fahrenheit, matching the temperature in Los Angeles that day. New images released by NASA reveal the remarkable ice melt brought on by the heat wave, a phenomenon that is ending up being a growing number of common in the peninsula

. NASA’s Earth Observatory

released 2 new images Friday by the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8 that show the distinction on the Eagle Island ice cap between February 4 and

February 13. The before-and-after snapshots reveal a dramatic decline in ice and snow along the northern pointer of the Antarctic peninsula. In the later shot, a large part of the ground shows up, as are brilliant blue

melted ponds in the center of the island.

< img src =" https://cbsnews3.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/02/22/871749ca-51c5-493f-9dd2-f2967b500bad/thumbnail/620×413/2db9c20f86abb5020d5ff6c21b91f72a/eagleisland-oli-2020044.jpg#" alt=" eagleisland-oli-2020044.

— about 1 inch– on that very same day, leading to

a loss of 4 inches amount to in a one-week period.

Climate Change’.

More in Climate Change. Eagle Island lost around 20% of seasonal snow build-up because single occasion, NASA said.” I haven’t seen melt ponds develop this quickly in Antarctica, “Mauri Pelto, a glaciologist at Nichols College in Massachusetts, stated in a NASA news release Friday.” You see these sort of melt occasions in Alaska and Greenland, but not typically in Antarctica.”

According to Pelto, this kind of quick melting is triggered by sustained temperatures significantly above freezing, an almost-unheard-of phenomenon in

Antarctica till the 21st century that’s become more common in current

years.” If you believe about this one event in February, it isn’t that considerable,” stated Pelto. “It’s more substantial that these events are coming more often.”

The heatwave in Antarctica is obvious on this map, which shows temperatures across the peninsula on February 9, 2020. The map represents air temperature levels at 2 meters( about 6.5 feet) in the air. The darkest red areas are where the model shows temperatures exceeding 10 ° C(

jpg” height=” 413″ width=” 620″ class=” lazyload” data-srcset=” https://cbsnews3.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/02/22/871749ca-51c5-493f-9dd2-f2967b500bad/thumbnail/620×413/2db9c20f86abb5020d5ff6c21b91f72a/eagleisland-oli-2020044.jpg 1x, https://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/02/22/871749ca-51c5-493f-9dd2-f2967b500bad/thumbnail/1240×826/d3fc9b958acf350c3bcf028e90de8cca/eagleisland-oli-2020044.jpg 2x”

srcset =” information: image/svg+ xml,% 3Csvg %20xmlns% 3D’ http% 3A% 2F% 2Fwww. w3.org% 2F2000% 2Fsvg’% 20viewBox% 3D’ 0% 200 %20620% 20413’% 2F %3E” > New NASA satellite images reveal the dramatic effects of February’s record-breaking heatwave on Eagle Island in Antarctica. NASA Earth Observatory Eagle Island is only about 25 miles from Argentina’s Esperanza research base, which taped the potentially record-high temperature on February 6. According to NASA climate models, the island experienced peak melt

50 ° F). NASA Earth Observatory

Researchers also just recently discovered warm water for the very first time below a vital point of Antarctica’s “

doomsday glacier,” a nickname for one of Antarctica’s fastest melting glaciers. The collapse of the 74,000-square-mile Thwaites might release a mass of water approximately the size of Florida or Great Britain, raising

< a href=" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rising-sea-levels-on-track-to-destroy-homes-of-300-million-people-by-2050/" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=

“” > water level by more than three feet. On Elephant Island, just slightly north of the peninsula, chinstrap

< a href=http:// “https://www.cbsnews.com/news/declining-penguin-populations-warming-antarctica-cbs-news-visits-remote-shores-of-elephant-island/” data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=” “> penguins have actually suffered a 60% decrease due to the fact that of the increasing temperatures, scientists found. WMO researchers have likewise discovered that the typical temperature level in Antarctica has actually increased by more than five degrees Fahrenheit over the last 50 years– a rate 5 times the global average.

How climate modification is impacting Antarctica’s environmenthttp://

. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is still working to validate the record temperature, however the agency called the Antarctic Peninsula one of the faster warming areas in the world.

The heatwave was the culmination of numerous atypical weather patterns off the coast of South America. Warm temperature levels constructed up due to a ridge of high pressure over Cape Horn, Chile. While warm air is generally kept out of the peninsula by strong winds, the westerlies remained in a weakened state, allowing warm air to reach the ice sheet.

February’s heat represents a stressing pattern: It was the 3rd significant melt occasion of this year’s Antarctic summer, following warm spells in November and January.

Eagle Island is only about 25 miles from Argentina’s Esperanza research study base, which tape-recorded the possibly record-high temperature level on February 6. More in Climate Change. Eagle Island lost around 20% of seasonal snow accumulation in that single event, NASA said.

< img src =" https://cbsnews3.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/02/22/f3bfafe9-ee99-4bd9-97e3-2cafa71d16ba/thumbnail/620×469/b5a90e2b513a1f4048c34fb1cf6a5615/antarctica-geos5-2020040.png#" alt=" antarctica-geos5-2020040. Warm temperatures built up due to a ridge of high pressure over Cape Horn, Chile.

from WordPress http://troot.net/nasa-satellite-images-reveal-dramatic-melting-in-antarctica-after-record-heat-wave-cbs-news/