- West Antarctica: Smith, Pope and Kohler glaciers are melting faster than expected.
- Critical area: Free-floating undersides of glaciers melt the most.
- Ice masses in West Antarctica could raise sea levels by up to 1.3 meters.
- Focus: space travel, earth observation, global change, TanDEM-X
COLOGNE, Germany (DLR PR) — The South Pole has new problem children. A group of smaller glaciers are melting faster than expected: Pope, Smith and Kohler. So far, the neighboring ice giants Thwaites and Pine Island have been the focus of research because they are very fragile and could cause global sea levels to rise by up to 1.2 meters. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has uncovered and analyzed the changes in West Antarctica together with international research partners. Using special radar data from the TanDEM-X and COSMO-SkyMed satellite missions, they tracked down the causes of the rapid melting of the smaller glaciers.
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