NASA Keeps an Eye on the Earth's Iceboxes
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NASA's Operation IceBridge monitors the polar ice caps so that scientists can study how each interacts with the global climate. Between Oct. 11 and Nov. 17, NASA is conducting Antarctic survey flights, including a trip over the Thwaites Glacier on October 15th.
The Thwaites Ice Shelf, in western Antarctica, is shown here calving. Antarctic sea ice coverage hit a new annual winter maximum earlier this year. This is in contrast to the Arctic, where ice coverage shattered an all-time low in September. Summer Arctic sea ice is disappearing much faster than scientists anticipated amid warming temperatures.