An Inspirational Lecture Delivered by Dr. Ted Scambos of NSIDC

Dr. Ted Scambos, the Lead Scientist of the USA National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) was invited by National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) to deliver an inspirational lecture on May 20, entitled “A closer look at polar ice: Formosat-2 and glacier changes in the Arctic and Antarctic.” The research team, led by Dr. Scambos, has been collaborating with NCKU faculty on the acquisition of satellite images from Formosat-2, an Earth observation satellite operated by Taiwan’s National Space Organization (NSPO).

During the lecture, Dr. Scambos showed superior and high-resolution digital multi-spectral images of both the Antarctica and the Arctic, which were acquired from Formosat-2 satellite, to explain the relation between climate change, and disintegration and retreat of ice shelves.

Dr. Scambos is really concerned about the disappearance of permafrost owing to global warming, leading to significant emission of greenhouse gases entrapped underneath, such as methane and carbon dioxide, which, in turn, would accelerate pace of global warming and, hence, threaten the lives of human beings. Measures and actions to slow down and, even, to sop the pace of global warming are in urgent needs.

Dr. Scambos indicated that flowing water from fracture of ice shelf will deepen the fracture, eventually resulting in the cracking of ice shelf and glacier. In addition, liquid water in the cracks can drill to the base of an ice shelf, and leading to its disintegration piece by piece. During his lecture, Dr. Scambos revealed the details regarding the break-up of the Wilkins Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula, and explained the importance of ice shelves. He said that the break-up of ice shelves can accelerate the sea-level rise. “Ice shelf is the key one to keep the glacier stable and the glacier up the level,” added by Dr. Scambos.

Moreover, Dr. Scambos also gave a warning resulted from the rapid break-up of the Arctic sea ice. According to Dr. Scambos, the ice layer covering the Arctic can reflect the solar heat back to the space; however, the open seas uncovered by the ice will absorb more solar heat, worsening the situation in global warming. One of the impacts pondered by this phenomenon is that the drought on earth occurs more frequently with an expanding arid area.

Dr. Scambos concluded that the break-up of ice shelves and warm ocean water will result in rapid collapse of glaciers, both of which are highly correlated to severe global climate change.

The lecture by Dr. Scambos has triggered the audience’s curiosity and inspired the audience to raise many interesting questions regarding Antarctica and the Arctic, including the temporary disappearance of the polar ice and its consequence on global climate change. Dr. Scambos pointed out that Arctic sea ice will disappear for a few weeks in summer over the region around the North Pole extending towards Russia by sometime between 2020 and 2030. The open water in late summer, and the delayed formation of an ice layer over the ocean in winter, will begin to have an effect on climate in the surrounding permafrost regions at first and later, generally, in the northern hemisphere (later), especially in early autumn and winter. In fact we can already observe the beginnings of these changes in climate. Dr. Scambos called on more emergent steps to curb the pace of global warming to ensure the life safety of human beings.

Two years ago, the former Vice President of United States, Al Gore, testified before the Congress on climate change and the data he used on collapse of Wilkins ice shelf was indeed based on the outstanding digital images requested from Formosat-2 imagery for polar research, the joint collaboration project with NCKU.

During the lecture, Dr. Ted Scambos showed the audience four areas of interest for which Formosat-2 imagery has provided very important data: the disintegration of Antarctic Peninsula’s Wilkins Ice Shelf during February-March, 2008; the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf retreat in July-August 2008 in the Arctic coast of Ellesmere Island; glacial velocity mapping from Formosat-2 image pairs for Kangerlugssuaq Glacier in southeastern Greenland during the summer of 2008; and velocity mapping for the central Crane Glacier in the Larsen B region of the Antarctic Peninsula spanning the period February 2008 to March 2009.