Drone footage of the Greenland ice sheet melting shot by Josh Haner is breathtaking yet terrifying. Despite the troubles brought about by the melting of the ice sheets, Josh Haner, a Pulitzer-winning photographer, was stunned at the beauty of the rivers created through the melting, as captured in this video.
"During the flight, I was mesmerized as I watched the live video from the camera on a tablet attached to my controller. I thought: This is what birds must feel as they fly up Alpine streams, skimming the surface of the water," said Haner, according to the Huffington Post.
Scientists have been studying the effects of global warming on the ice sheets of Greenland and Antartica for years, using satellite images that pinpoint areas where icebergs break off. They also have models to predict the thawing of ice. However, there remains trouble in predicting how fast sea levels will rise as a result of the melting due to lack of on-the-ground data, according to BGR.
Now armed with the idea to use drones to collect more visuals on Greenland ice sheets, the researches will be able to gain more valuable information that could help scientists compute the speed of the rise of seal levels and how people in coastal areas from New York to Bangladesh could plan for the change, the New York Times reports.
The Greenland ice sheet is the second largest mass of ice on Earth. When the entire mass melts, it has the capacity to raise sea levels up to 20 feet. Recent estimates suggest that surface melting is responsible for 60 percent of Greenland's ice sheet losses, while the remainder is caused by ice sheet discharge into the ocean, according to Phys.org.
