Artificial Intelligence Reveals How the Doomsday Glacier Is Deteriorating
Artificial Intelligence reveals how the Doomsday Glacier in Antarctica Is Deteriorating
The Thwaites Glacier often referred to as the Doomsday Glacier and roughly the size of the state of Gujarat is being harmed as it flows from the center of the continent to the coast by being squeezed and stretched. A new Artificial Intelligence that can track the situation and show how it is being harmed. Scientists have come forward with a new Artificial Intelligence to track the moment of glaciers. The AI tool tracks the activity and reveals how it is being damaged.
The Thwaites Glacier Ice Tongue has increased in speed twice during the past six years, from 4 km per year to 6 km per year before slowing down, according to researchers. Each time, the increase in speed was about 40%. Crevasse formation and ice flow speed were discovered to interact in a complex way by the researchers. “Dynamic changes on ice shelves are traditionally thought to occur on timescales of decades to centuries, so it was surprising to see this huge glacier speed up and slow down so quickly. The study also demonstrates the key role that fractures play in un-corking the flow of ice, a process known as unbuttressing,” Dr. Anna Hogg, a glaciologist at the University of Leeds, commented in a statement.
AI Gets to Work
The AI can help track fractures and crevasses in the ice beneath the overlying snow to better predict the fate of the Doomsday glacier as climate change worsens the conditions. Researchers had earlier revealed that the West Antarctic glacier is in a phase of fast retreat, raising concerns worldwide. In a study that was published in the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers used the artificial intelligence system in conjunction with Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites and routine synthetic aperture radar surveillance of coastal Antarctica. Cells in microscopic photos were initially recognized by the AI system. The AI is now being used to spot crevasses forming in the ice in Sentinel-1’s radar images of Thwaites Glacier Ice Tongue. Researchers concentrated on a region of the glacier system known as the grounding line, where the ice flows into the sea and starts to float, and will now be able to more properly monitor and model changes to this significant glacier thanks to the novel application of artificial intelligence.
Thwaites, a significant portion of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, has been among the areas most severely impacted by climate change and rising temperatures as a result of global warming. It is a floating ice shelf that serves as a dam to reduce the rate at which ice flows into the ocean from the continent. The glacier is thought by many to be in danger of retreating quickly, endangering coastal populations all around the world, and it has enough ice to increase sea levels by about 60 centimeters. Even though the ice shelves are very modest in relation to the overall glacier, alterations to them could have significant effects on the entire glacier system and future sea level rise.
