Question: NASA’s recently concluded OMG was related to the study of which of the following?
a) Mars weather
b) Earth’s upper Atmosphere
c) Global sea-level rise by melting Greenland’s glaciers
d) None of these
Answer: (c)
Related Facts:-
- On 31 December 2021 NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) mission concluded a six-year field campaign in Greenland.
- The mission was launched to measure how much the ocean is contributing to global sea-level rise by melting Greenland’s glaciers from below.
- The glaciers in Greenland are being melted by the ocean waters almost as much as the warm air above is melting them.
- The expedition conducted a comprehensive survey of the seafloor along Greenland’s coasts.
- It tracked the ocean’s temperature from year to year, place to place, and top to bottom.
- The mission thoroughly mapped out the ocean and tested the salinity of the water was at various depths.
- It also looked at how the salty Atlantic Ocean affected Greenland’s ice melting. Satellites could only report the temperature of the sea surface.
- OMG’s first-ever maps of the island’s seafloor and glaciers have revolutionized scientists’ understanding of the pace of sea-level rise in the coming decades.
- Rising sea levels caused by climate change are one of the biggest threats society faces in the next few decades.
- The mission found that two to four times as many glaciers are at high risk of melting than scientists knew.
- Scientists are of the view that the climate models that don’t include the ocean’s melting effect only estimate half of the glacial ice loss that will actually occur.
By – Rajesh Tripathi
Links:-
https://phys.org/news/2022-01-nasa-greenland-mission-years-unknown.html