 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| . |  |
. |
Will We Be Swamped by Rising Seas
Could some countries vanish beneath rising seas? Are melting icecaps responsible for ever-higher sea levels? And above all, are these changes man-made, and preventable, or part of a natural cycle? These are the questions that could soon be answered by scientists using data from ESA's ERS-1 and 2 and Envisat satellites. "It's vital that we understand how sea levels are changing over the entire globe," explains Ole Andersen, of Denmark's KMS research laboratory. By combining data from ERS-1 and 2, and the US Topex/Poseidon satellite, Andersen's team is monitoring changes in sea level with tremendous precision -- ERS radar altimeter data can be accurate to 3 cm. It's necessary to combine data from several satellites because only ERS-1 and 2 scanned the high latitudes beyond 66 degrees North and South. The project is focused on building up data about sea levels and surface temperatures over a long period. "You have to have ten years of data or more," explains Andersen, "because the work we are doing is trying to identify a long term effect. There are seasonal fluctuations in sea level in both hemispheres as a result of changes in the amount of warming from the sun, and there are longer term cycles such as the El Nino event in the Pacific, which occurs about every four years." An important part of Andersen's work is developing a statistical model which can be used to remove these natural cyclical effects to expose the underlying trend. Even with the clarity that ten years of data brings to the issue, there are still important questions to be answered. "We need to find out, for example, whether the sea level has risen because the icecaps are melting into the oceans, or because the sea water is warmer and less dense," explains Andersen. It is only through painstaking data analysis and new information from Envisat that the most important question of all can be answered: is mankind causing the seas to rise -- and can the seemingly-inexorable process be stopped? "We are just getting to the point where some people are saying that it most probably is man-made," says Andersen, "but I don't think we're really sure yet." Related Links Rising Seas Animation ERS homepage Earth Observation homepage ERS-Envisat Symposium homepage SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express 
Heating Up By One Degree
Washington - October 8, 2000Recorded observations of how the Earth's climate has changed over the last 50 years can substantially help scientists predict future climate change, according to an international team of scientists.
|
|
| |||||||||
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service. |
