One of my favorite things about astronomical gadgetry is when it's used to learn more things about Earth -- for instance, how much we're screwing up the planet.
A team of NASA and university scientists released a study today saying that large swaths of Antarctic snow (a combined area as big as California) melted in January 2005, as detected by satellite data.
"Antarctica has shown little to no warming in the recent past with the exception of the Antarctic Peninsula, but now large regions are showing the first signs of the impacts of warming as interpreted by this satellite analysis," said Konrad Steffen in a statement, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in
Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and one of the leaders of the team.
"Increases in snowmelt, such as this in 2005, definitely could have an impact on larger scale melting of Antarctica's ice sheets if they were severe or sustained over time."
While the scientists added that the melt wasn't fast enough to get into the open sea, it could be a harbinger of things to come, as they also believe that melting polar ice could affect ocean salinity, currents and global climate.
[via UniverseToday / NASA]
Image credit: NASA/JPL
