The eyes of NASA’s earth resource and environmental satellites observe the entire world with the purpose of identifying or predicting the changes that the earth will face over the next several decades, whether they are natural or human-induced. Identifying changes and monitoring trends in the atmosphere, in the oceans, and on the land involves numerous satellite sensors and platforms. Nowhere is the evidence of global climate change more impressive than at high latitudes; the “ice worlds” are melting. Land ice and sea ice impacts are documented particularly well from space-borne sensors, which can monitor vast remote regions as melting occurs. The MODIS sensor, which “flies” on the Terra and Aqua satellites, has been a particularly useful tool in monitoring changes in the cryosphere. Ice shelf disintegration and glacial retreat/advance will be highlighted in this presentation, using imagery from MODIS and other sensors including astronaut photography.
The eyes of NASA’s earth resource and environmental satellites observe the entire world with the purpose of identifying or predicting the changes that the earth will face over the next several decades, whether they are natural or human-induced. Identifying changes and monitoring trends in the atmosphere, in the oceans, and on the land involves numerous satellite sensors and platforms. Nowhere is the evidence of global climate change more impressive than at high latitudes; the “ice worlds” are melting. Land ice and sea ice impacts are documented particularly well from space-borne sensors, which can monitor vast remote regions as melting occurs. The MODIS sensor, which “flies” on the Terra and Aqua satellites, has been a particularly useful tool in monitoring changes in the cryosphere. Ice shelf disintegration and glacial retreat/advance will be highlighted in this presentation, using imagery from MODIS and other sensors including astronaut photography.