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| | | | | | | ERS-2 helps detect massive rivers under Antarctica
20 April 2006
| A photograph of the Dry Valleys in coastal East Antarctica. This is a region where, today, too little snow falls to form ice, yet it is so cold that no erosion takes place. In fact, the surface is reckoned to be at least 8 million years old. So what is exposed is the bed of an earlier, long-gone, ice sheet. The photograph shows channels eroded by a sub-glacial water flow, giving some idea of the complexity of the drainage system that may connect the lakes.
Credits: David Sugden, Edinburgh University | |  |  | |
| | | | | An ERS-2 SAR interferogram of the drop in elevation of the ice sheet above the emptying lake. The drop in elevation determined by ERS-2’s radar altimeter has been superimposed on it. The estimated extent of the lake is outlined as a white dashed line.
Credits: ESA | | | | |
| | | | | The follow-on from ERS-1, ESA's ERS-2 Earth Observation satellite remains operational more than a decade after its 1995 launch. Its payload includes a unique C-band scatterometer that can measure wind fields at the heart of storms of hurricanes, even through clouds and heavy rain.
Credits: EADS Astrium | | | | |
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| | Related news Radar altimetry confirms global warming is affecting polar glaciersSatellite data yields major results in Greenland glaciers studyERS altimeter survey shows growth of Greenland Ice Sheet interiorRelated Missions ERS overviewRelated links Nature article: Lakes linked beneath Antarctic iceCentre for Polar Observation and Modelling
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