NASA study points at highest ice sheet melting in 2007

This is real cause for global concern.
A new NASA-supported study reports that 2007 marked an overall rise in the melting trend over the entire Greenland ice sheet and, remarkably, melting in high-altitude areas was the highest at 150 percent more than average. In fact, the amount of snow that has melted this year over Greenland could cover the surface size of the US more than twice.
Marco Tedesco, a research scientist at the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, cooperatively managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and the University of Maryland at Baltimore County, used satellite data to compare average snow melting from 1988-2006 with what has taken place this summer.
According to a release issued by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Tedesco found the melting index (an indicator of where melting is occurring and for how long) to be "significantly higher than average" in high altitude areas over 1.2 miles above sea level.
Melting over those areas occurred 25-30 days longer this year than the observed average in the previous 19 years.
"When snow melts at those high altitudes and then refreezes, it can absorb up to four times more energy than fresh, unthawed snow," said Tedesco. "This can affect Earth's energy budget by changing how much radiation from the sun is absorbed by the Earth versus that reflected back into the atmosphere. Refrozen snow can also alter the snow density, thickness and snow-water content." Tedesco's findings were published on Tuesday in the American Geophysical Union's Eos newspaper.
Researchers determine the melting index by multiplying how long melting took place by the area where the increased melting took place. According to Tedesco, melting in April and May of this year in high-altitude areas was very low, but in June melting jumped unexpectedly and led to the record melting index for the year.
"This record melting index in those areas came as a bit of a surprise, showing us, once again, the extreme variability and complexity of these processes," said Tedesco. His expertise in documenting melting trends produced other recent studies on increased snow melting over Greenland and the Antarctic.
The data collected by the Special Sensor Microwave Imagers on the Defense meteorological Satellite Program satellites provided Tedesco with insight into how much of an electromagnetic signal was naturally emitted by snow and ice in areas beneath the satellite overpass. The microwave instruments can detect melting above and below the snow surface. The data were processed at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, in just 24 hours after the satellite overpass, enabling Tedesco to quickly spot changes that could signal a melting trend or new record.
Tedesco's work also confirmed that the melting index this year in lower altitude areas of Greenland, though not record breaking, was higher than average by 30 percent, placing 2007 in fifth place for the highest melting index after 2005, 2002, 1998 and 2004, in that
order.

Mindset sucks Indian science

I am just back from attending the 58^th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Hyderabad. I must say there was a shocking trend that unraveled itself, opening up the very mindset of Indian scientists. It had to happen there, for all to see!

Indian space scientists were busy ranting about their achievements rather than outlaying their plans hoping to collaborate with scientists from other countries who were there as delegates.

It was almost as a rule rater than exception.

There was this session on satellite services and applications, in which all foreign scientists presented imaginative, though achievable, projects and discussed possibilities of collaboration. These presentations evoked instant responses from the audiences through bright questions that further expanded the scope of future partnerships and technologies.

Then came our Indian guy, someone named P K Jain from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), appearing like someone with a mission in life to chatter all the achievements that ISRO has to its credit over the past 40 years.

To top it, he looks at the chairperson and says “Sir, I am sorry to rush through the presentation as you can see it is very difficult, nay almost impossible, to present what all we have achieved in the last four decades in just 15 minutes given to me for presentation.”

Wow!

One wonders whether it is an international congress meant to share and discuss future road maps or a platform to pat one’s own back over achievements in the past!

Come to think of it, it is hardly shocking. It is just an extension of the Indian mind. It is the Indian mind!

It also speaks volumes of an in-built Indian psychological complex that reflects a fear of not being acknowledged. And what better chance than an international congress where delgates from almost all space-faring nations have gathered, that too in your own home.

This fear and mounting pressures have also in the past led to a now-common feature in Indian science – plagiarism!

And how does one detect it? It is almost impossible. Thousands and thousands of papers are presented throughout the world and most are available on the net if one knows where to look for it. And you should know that Indian scientists are pretty good at that.

Why science in India suffers may not take too long for any person closely watching the “evolution of science“ in this country, if at all there is such a thing happening in India.

Forget the clichéd reasons given for the suffering of science and the scientific community – lack of infrastructure, inadequate funds, ignoring basic research due to lack of a sound foundation in school and college, dwindling scientific temper or even tendency of the youth to opt for lucrative careers rather than take up challenges posed by daily life for improving conditions of the people.

These are reasons that are easier sucked up by the mind than attack the root cause of why Indian science suffers so chronically that it has hardly got out of the bed it rests in, hoping to recover.

Looks like science would continue to suffer for eternity in India because of the very mindset of the scientists, not because of lack of assets required to boost science and technology anywhere.

Where is the direction of research? Is there dedication to help translate research into applications for people?

Former Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister of India, Prof V K Aatre, taking advantage of his presently being in retirement, mustered up enough courage to say what he would never have dared to while in service as the chief of India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). He said: “Where is research in India? Is anyone conducting research here at all? Where are the research labs? Do they exist?”

That, coming from the top man of the defence labs in India is truly something to ponder over, even if it came through his retirement, it did come nevertheless.

Now these are sirens calling out the danger signals.

Aatre also pointed out that no matter how much more funding (the S&T funding in India is a mere 0.8 per cent of the GDP) is added through government sanction, it would hardly be of help because the Indian mindset lacks the spirit of questioning that is mandatory for making good scientists.

India actually provides an ideal set-up for scientists to work on the needs of people, because India is a country where needs out-run the processes meant to meet those needs. But you may never come across heartening cases of people researching towards developing applications that could make day-to-day life more convenient for people.

In fact there are applications. But these are begotten by people from glossy malls where technology wrapped up in devices land up from other countries. Then we crib and cry, not knowing that the fault lies in our own mindset!

That also explains why we are struggling with our “prided” light combat aircraft, Tejas, programme, or even its engine, Kaveri. From the initial proud position of insisting on all-indigenous products, the defence scientists are now forced into submission to accept help from the likes of Lockheed Martin, Snecma and their brood.

The result? The indigenous element would be reduced to around 40-50 percent. Not more!

The lack of indigenous foray into scientific applications has left the field open to foreign technologies coming in and exploiting the gullible masses.

But foreign ka maal is still a much sought after thing among the rural people.

In the process they end up paying many times more than what they would have to pay for indigenised technologies and services. But where are they?

Sad, but true! Science really sucks!