Human beings can wreak environmental damage to any place they live or work in by clearing out forests, strip mining mountains, etc. However, Antarctica was out of reach till now was supposedly said to be safe from damage at the hands of humans. Sadly, this is not the case anymore. Climate change has made sure that no corner of the planet is safe from the destruction caused by humans. The gradual increase in temperature has caused the sea ice around the poles to reach a record low last year.

Although the disappearance of the Arctic sea ice is deemed important, the ice that around Antarctica seems to be causing more panic amongst scientists and researchers at present. According to the recent studies, if the greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate, there will be at least a 4 ft sea level increase in the low lying areas around the world. This is why NASA uses satellites to monitor the climate and weather from outer space. This way, the present scenario is monitored, helping the scientists come up with different ways to slow down the climate change.

NASA’s IceBridge mission was established in 2009 to cover the Polar Regions and study the state of the ice at these locations using equipment like radars, laser altimeters, gravimeters, and magnetometers. The mission consisted of 8 to 12-hour expeditions where the average cruising altitude of the flights was maintained at 1500 ft. and at times even lower than that. The pilots were allowed to change the cruising altitude according to the lay of the land.

The thinning of the ice is measured using a laser altimeter and a shallow radar. If the problem of thinning ice is not solved soon, the world will be facing trouble pretty soon. It is up to the people to take the issue of climate change into their hands and try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible.