NASA measures Greenland’s weight and reports significant weight loss due to melting glaciers | Forbes Japan (Forbes Japan)

Scientists at NASA have devised an ingenious way to measure Earth’s weight on Earth using two satellites in space. Using technology, the staggering weight lost due to melting Greenland glaciers has been reported.

Climate scientist Josh Willis of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) says Greenland has lost 5 trillion tons of weight since the early 2000s. Willis’ team since 2002Grace and Grace FO (Grace Follow On)She began observing Greenland using two satellites named.

Hosted by California Institute of TechnologylectureWillis said: “The Grace satellite and its successor, Grace FO, have been measuring the retreat of Greenland’s glaciers since the early 2000s. During that time, Greenland has lost more than 5 trillion tons of ice, and I wouldn’t be for a weight-loss program. If published in Jenny Craig”.

Grace FO moves to track Grace in orbit around the Earth.

“When a satellite hovers over a heavy object, gravity gives it a little bit more speed,” Willis says. “So the second in a row is a little closer to the first. Some of the team members call them ‘Tom and Jerry’ and they chase each other. By measuring the distances between them very precisely and watching them diverge and come closer to each other, in fact, measure the weight of the Earth, that way you can Measure the weight of an island like Greenland.”

They were also able to determine that the place in Greenland where the ice is declining is at the edge of the ice sheet, where the ice meets a warming sea.

“We were able to confirm the hypothesis that the ocean played a major role in melting the ice from its edges,” Willis says.

the teamGreenland Ocean Melt (OMG, Greenland Ocean Melt) Through a mission called a rice field.

At the same time, a series of NASA missions (Poseidon and Jason 1, 2, 3) recorded the rate of sea level rise.

“The rate of sea level rise is also increasing,” Willis says. “If you look at the first 10 years, it’s going to go up about 2 mm a year. In the next 10 years it’s going to be about 3 mm. And in the next 10 years it’s going to be about 4 mm, maybe 4.5 mm a year. The speed is increasing, you can actually see the sea is rising higher and higher. .

He added that if all of Greenland’s surface ice were lost, sea levels would rise by about 25 feet.

（original forbes.com）