Scientists to study Polar ice-cap melt

A group of European scientists are launching an Arctic probe to study the ice-cap melt and predict the date for a complete meltdown at the North Pole.
The survey comes in the backdrop of the melting of snow in the polar region that led to an ice-free north-west passage for the first time this summer."The survey will provide the most detailed and accurate data ever recorded of its thickness and enable the scientists to predict more precisely than even before when the North Pole ice cap will cease to be a year-round global feature," said Joao Rodrigues of the Polar Oceans Physics Group, University of Cambridge.Come February, the three-member team led by polar explorer Pen Hadow will start a 120 day journey from Point Barrow, Alaska, crossing 2,000 km of the ice cap in temperature as low as minus 50 degree Celsius.The team will make 10 million readings using a specially-developed, four kg impulse radar, backed by manual ice-drilling, to determine snow and ice-thickness.The data collected by the team will be studied by scientists at NASA, the UK Met Office and University College of London's Center for Polar Observation and Modelling."If we discover the North Pole ice cap is melting as fast as some experts fear, this survey will provide a decisive wake-up call for political leaders everywhere to take the urgent steps needed to prepare us all for the global consequences of North Pole ice cap meltdown," Hadow said.

The team will use state-of-the-art equipment 'SPRITE (Surface Penetrating Radar for Ice-Thickness Establishment)' for measuring the thickness of the polar ice cap."The equipment can differentiate between snow and ice layers, which satellite and submarines cannot," said Michael Gorman, who designed the equipment especially for the survey.Scientists claimed that up to now, most estimates for the likely disappearances of the permanent ice cap have been based on the rate it is shrinking.

And, reliable predictions are hampered because knowledge of actual thickness of Arctic ice cover is not known.
The International Panel for Climatic Change (IPCC) has predicted that the Arctic ice-cap will disappear between 50-100 years and during the 21st century sea levels will rise between nine and 88 cms.
The ice-cap covers almost three per cent of the Earth's surface and reflects approximately 80 percent of incoming solar energy.

Its removal would allow 70 percent more of the sun's energy to be absorbed by the Earth's surface in this region.