Tracking Changes in Antarctic Ice Sheets

The amount of water locked up in ice sheets is so large that even minor melting can increase the rate of sea level rise around the world, affecting billions of people who live in coastal areas. POLENET (the Polar Earth Observing Network) is a project in which scientists and engineers are working together in the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. These measurements will help the team model how much ice was lost over the past 10,000 years since the last major ice age. Combining this data with information gathered by satellites will allow POLENET to figure out how the ice sheets are changing in response to recent climate change. During late 2008, Kelly Carroll will be sending in virtual postcards to Windows to the Universe describing his experience with this research.