On the icy and remote islands of Svalbard archipelago In Norway, the Earth hides ice colossi with behavior that fascinates science. And they are not frozen static masses, but rather incredibly dynamic frozen rivers that have been under the watchful eye of NASA satellites. Something really important because he has been able to capture an amazing phenomenon on the Stonebreen Glacier: a flow pattern that simulates a seasonal “beat”, and that even has a very characteristic red color.
A transformation phenomenon. The recent article published by the NASA Earth Observatoryreveals how this glacier transforms during the warmer months. The data show a brutal choreography in which the ice moved at speeds of up to 2,590 meters per year in the summer of 2020. Although the real question here is what exactly makes this glacier “beat” with such force and how we have managed to measure it with such precision.
Melt water. Glaciologist Chad Greene, a key researcher in this discovery, explains that the secret of this heartbeat lies in the water. During the summer, melt water penetrates to the base of the glacier and this water dramatically increases the hydrostatic pressure, acting as a powerful lubricant between the immense mass of ice and the bedrock. In this way, by losing friction, the glacier slides towards the ocean at dizzying speeds.
Scientists call this phenomenon “upwelling.” While the vast majority of the planet’s glaciers flow at a more or less constant speed, only 1% of global glaciers experience this type of cycle of rapid advance and subsequent dormancy. Coincidentally, Svalbard is one of the places in the world where this anomalous behavior is most common.
ITS_LIVE. Tracking the movement of a glacier millimeter by millimeter is not a simple task at all, and to achieve this, scientists have used this technology, which is a monumental initiative. developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
This system acts as a large, high-resolution global radar and to this end, it automatically processes millions of pairs of optical and radar images obtained by satellite constellations such as NASA’s Landsat and ESA’s Sentinel using a powerful algorithm called autoRIFT.
A long process. It is not something that can be done in two days of analysis, but to achieve this result it has been necessary to process more than 36 million pairs of images collected since 1982. By processing this data, the tools are capable of generating maps where the colors reveal the movement: intense red to identify fast flows and pink for slower progress.
A fragile giant. The science behind Stonebreen has been fascinating researchers for years, since previous studies already warned about the precarious situation of the glacier. In 2017, Strozzi’s team documented how the glacier underwent significant frontal destabilization, and after a slow retreat that lasted until 2011, it experienced a strong acceleration driven by the loss of thickness and, possibly, the intrusion of unusually warm ocean water.
The problem is that part of the glacier is anchored below sea level for six kilometers from its front. This particularity makes it extremely vulnerable both to melting and to erosion by the ocean itself in front of it.
Its relevance. In a context of climate emergency like the one we live in, understanding these beats is vital. As Noël’s team has already demonstrated, the low altitude of the glaciers in Svalbard is directly correlated with a very high variability in ice mass loss, which can be a disaster as sea levels rise.
That is why these projects are very important, since they allow almost real-time research, not only of the wonderful seasonal “heartbeat” of nature, but it is our best predictive tool to calculate exactly how the melt will behave and, consequently, how it will affect the entire ecosystem.
Images | Vince Gx
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