Question: What is the name of US satellite that has discovered the hidden lake system under the ice in Antarctica?
a) ICESat-2
b) CALIPSO
c) Aquarius
d) None of these
Answer: (a)
Related Facts:-
- Scientists have discovered the two new subglacial lakes below the thick ice surface in Antarctica using NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2).
- ICESat-2 allowed to precisely map these subglacial lakes beneath the Antarctic ice.
- We know that at the surface, the Antarctic Ice Sheet look like a calm, perpetual ice blanket that has covered Antarctica for millions of years.
- The ice sheet in Antarctica can be thousands of meters deep at its thickest, and it hides hundreds of melt water lakes where its base meets the continent’s bedrock.
- Deep below the surface, some of these lakes fill and drain continuously through a system of waterways that eventually drain into the ocean.
- ICESat-2 has the most advanced Earth-observing laser instrument NASA has ever flown in space.
- With the help of this satellite scientists have improved their maps of these hidden lake systems under the West Antarctic ice sheet.
- The satellite measures the height of the ice surface, which, despite its enormous thickness, rises or falls as lakes fill or empty under the ice sheet.
- The study was published in July 7 in Geophysical Research Letters.
- The new study integrated the height data from ICESat-2’s predecessor, the original ICESat mission, as well as the European Space Agency’s satellite dedicated to monitoring polar ice thickness, CryoSat-2.