from the as-ice-floes-flow-gravity's-drop-drops dept.
The European Space Agency started to crunch the data acquired during the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) mission. ESA is able to report now that the loss of Antarctic ice for the duration of the program (Mar 2009 – Nov 2013) is significant enough to produce detectable gravity shifts.
Now, as I'm done with the sensationalism above, let's try to show some perspective:
- between 2011 and 2014, Antarctica as a whole has been shrinking in volume by 125 cubic kilometres a year;
- Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomer) argues (with good supporting material, how else?) we are past the point of no return with the major Antarctic West Antarctic glacier collapse, which will contribute to the global sea levels with a rise of several meters over the next few hundred years
- (relevant trivia) the GRACE mission (JPL and German Aerospace Center) - still operational - offers a more coarse resolution for the gravity variation: flies 500km altitude and uses the variation of push/pull forces between two satellites on polar orbits 220km apart.
-
The GOCE satellite flew at lower altitude (235 km), used ionic propulsion to compensate for the drag and directly measured the g-force using three pairs of ultra-sensitive accelerometers arranged in three dimensions that responded to tiny variations in the 'gravitational tug' of Earth with an accuracy of 1e–5 m/s^2 (that's roughly 1e-6 of the standard g) and a spatial resolution under 100km.
The spatial resolution is fine enough to resolve the loss of ice by catchment basins and offer an insight on the dynamic of the ice loss (sorry, the URL for the animation is broken).
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 01 2014, @01:16PM
I live right on the beach - still not drowning.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 01 2014, @01:28PM
c e n t u r i e s
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:57AM
H U B R I S
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 01 2014, @01:45PM
GW != AGW -- 20 Thousand Years and counting!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday October 01 2014, @02:12PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 01 2014, @02:26PM
it was the weight of all the trolls moving to this thread.
(Score: 1) by Thexalon on Wednesday October 01 2014, @03:42PM
More like the mass of yo momma!
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @02:11PM
No trolling needed, when the summary already talks about a satellite called GOATSE.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Blackmoore on Wednesday October 01 2014, @03:29PM
Now for sale in the Adirondacks.. great view of what had once been NYC and boroughs.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday October 01 2014, @04:03PM
Meh, I'll stick with my other prediction: After a few decades of 2 degrees F temperature increases, and with most of Florida underwater, the new popular destination for Spring Break will be the sunny beaches of Cleveland, complete with palm trees!
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday October 01 2014, @04:39PM
A few feet is not enough. I bought my place hoping for a 50m rise, so that the canyon near me turns into a pleasant fjord.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 01 2014, @07:49PM
Pining eh?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday October 01 2014, @07:56PM
We indeed already have the flock of parrots handy, and one of them had decided to cease to be on my driveway a couple months ago.
We'll need to paint them blue over the next century, they are currently green/black (a few blue feathers)
(they acclimated after accidental releases, we have about a hundred flying around)
(Score: 5, Informative) by Covalent on Wednesday October 01 2014, @04:04PM
...while Miami flooded.
I'm hoping that the death of Miami finally wakes us up to the reality of AGW. Miami is already bracing for major flooding (http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Miami-Beach-Prepares-for-Extreme-High-Tides-275412851.html), and water over the roads is more and more common there. Currently sea level is rising 3.3mm/year (that's about 1/8th of an inch for the metric-phobic Americans). Doesn't sound like much, but it's an inch and a half per decade, and a foot in the next 80 years.
And that's if the rate doesn't accelerate, which this data suggests it will. Greatly.
Just the loss of 125 cubic km per year from Antarctica will increase sea level by an extra .3 to .4 mm/year. That changes the 80 year forecast from 1 foot to over 13 inches. Doesn't sound like much again, but when your streets are permanently covered with an extra inch of water, it makes all the difference in the world.
Make no mistake: Miami is doomed. No seawalls or pumps or levees will stop the rise of the ocean. The ground is too porous there, and water will simply bubble up through the ground (already happening: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/11/miami-drowning-climate-change-deniers-sea-levels-rising [theguardian.com]).
How much money will have to be lost before we act? At what point does the loss of valuable property exceed the loss of valuable fossil fuels? The answer to THAT question is the answer to when we will likely start giving a crap about AGW.
But by then we might have fewer than 50 states: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2609338/Would-YOU-underwater-polar-caps-melted-Map-reveals-planet-look-like-sea-levels-rose-260ft.html [dailymail.co.uk]
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday October 02 2014, @12:45AM
If the drowning of New Orleans and New York City didn't do the job, Miami probably won't either. Drowning Washington DC might, but even that's not a guarantee.
Doesn't matter: A lot of the property is owned by the "little people", whereas the valuable fossil fuels are owned by Very Important Persons, so even if the masses do give a damn about AGW, they'll burn it anyway.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Covalent on Thursday October 02 2014, @11:39AM
Excellent point. I just wonder if the real estate / tourism industry will eventually have sufficient clout (and economic incentive) to fight back.
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @01:19PM
The real estate industry will just sell all the to-be-flooded estate to denialists and enjoy their big profits.
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Wednesday October 01 2014, @05:41PM
What I'm getting from this article is that my recent weight gain may be nothing more than melting ice caps? If we can get this on Oprah, I'm sure the US will suddenly feel obligated to put more mass back into the polls/fix global warming.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 01 2014, @07:40PM
History has shown through art that things like flooding and tidal waves are not new. But guess what is? Trying to stop them from happening.
Anyone who wants to panic about AGW, I say you had better give up ALL your cars and all your electric appliances first, and show the rest of the world by your good example. If you aren't willing to do that _before_ you expect everyone else to, I call you a manipulative liar and hypocrite.
Next, I challenge anyone here to a photo challenge, for every photo of a poor person that lives on beach front property, I will show you a photo that shows 100 times as many with rich people on them. So who is AGW really affecting? (think of the poor people!!!)
I'd like to hear from actual poor people (real actual poor people) that live on a beach that feel like their land is disappearing. If all you can find is one or two little islands, consider the ramifications of that evidence, and since it's isolated, maybe the island is sinking or eroding. (more likely)
Now, we have photos of the Florida and California beaches going back decades, please show me where any of it has had the water rising on it. If someone wants to scream and holler "It's 1 cm higher than it was 30yrs ago" I say good, then it takes a really long time for AGW to affect things, so we have time to get the rich people back from the edge of disaster.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @01:24PM
Yeah sure, and by the same logic all those people who fear getting fat should immediately cease to eat anything at all.