Unmanned Planes At 500 - 1,000 Feet To Provide Detailed Greenland Ice Data For NOAA - AFP

[hatrack]

Aircraft flying over Greenland will offer a view of the melting Greenland Ice Sheet and its potential for raising the global sea level, U.S. scientists said.

The two unmanned Manta planes will help scientists determine whether the ice sheet's melt rate will accelerate, Betsy Weatherhead of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory said in a news release.

A view of the region from 500-1,000 feet above the ice can provide fine-scale measurements of the water and surface of the glaciers, said Weatherhead, a scientist for the Arctic test bed of NOAA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems program. The Mantas can provide that view, cruising at low altitudes over little-known terrain without endangering humans.

The Greenland Ice Sheet is shrinking at a rate of 40-50 cubic miles annually, a pace that's accelerating, NOAA said. Better observations could help explain the role of short-lived surface lakes and why the edges of the ice sheet are melting so fast.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Unmanned_flights_give_peek_at_melting_ice_999.html

[phantom power]

1. Cool.

[hatrack]

3. They finally found something useful for those drone aircraft to do!

:toast:

[XemaSab]

6. We've got aircraft with no people aboard here in Northern California

Why, I just got back from seeing Air Force One land over at the airport! :D

[XemaSab]

2. Sorry, I got lost at

"Betsy Weatherhead of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory." :P

[whistle]

4. Military drones just like what were used on 9/11

[Dead_Parrot]

5. Doesn't bode well for the next lost polar bear...

[Nihil]

7. Cruel ...

... :spray: but :spank: