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    "title": "West Antarctica's Weak Spot",
    "description": "Pine Island Glacier was first called the \"weak underbelly\" of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet almost 30 years ago. The nickname stuck in glaciology circles because scientists still fear it is true. Pine Island, or PIG, as it's often called, drains about 10 percent of the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet. In 2006, the glacier began losing ice mass at an even faster rate than it had before. For scientists concerned with how much PIG could contribute to sea level rise if it lives up to its moniker, there are two key questions. First, why is it changing? Scientists are investigating, among other causes, how the circulation of warming waters under the ice shelf could lead to thinning. Second, how much is it changing? Following the end of the laser altimetry mission ICESat in 2009, NASA launched an airborne campaign called Operation IceBridge to measure critical polar regions. A laser altimeter onboard NASA's DC-8 research airplane has observed PIG continuing the rapid ice loss—measured as a change in elevation—that began to accelerate in 2006. Watch in the visualization below, an analysis partly based on satellite and aircraft data, how NASA has charted PIG's increasing changes. || ",
    "release_date": "2011-11-08T00:00:00-05:00",
    "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:53:29.434871-04:00",
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            "description": "See [NASA.gov](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/news/fall11/antarctic-ice.html#.Uwd64V5Fp6x)",
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            "page_type": "Visualization",
            "title": "West Antarctic Glacier Ice Flows and Elevation Change",
            "description": "This animation shows glacier changes detected by ATM, ICESat and ice bridge data in the highly dynamic Amundsen Embayment of West Antarctica. We know that ice speeds in this area have increased dramatically from the late 1990s to the present as the ice shelves in this area have thinned and the bottom of the ice has lost contact with the bed beneath. As the ice has accelerated, ice upstream of the coast must be stretched more vigorously, causing it to thin. NASA-sponsored aircraft missions first measured the ice surface height in this region in 2002, followed by ICESat data between 2002 and 2009. Ice Bridge aircraft have measured further surface heights in 2009 and 2010, and these measurements continue today. Integrating these altimetry sources allows us to estimate surface height changes throughout the drainage regions of the most important glaciers in the region. We see large elevation changes at the coast on Thwaites glacier, at the center of the images, and large and accelerating elevation changes extending inland from the coast on Pine Island and Smith glaciers, to the left and right of the images, respectively. The changes on Pine Island and Smith glaciers mark these as potential continuing sources of ice to the sea, and they have been surveyed in 2011 by Ice Bridge aircraft and targeted for repeat measurements in coming years. || ",
            "release_date": "2011-11-02T00:00:00-04:00",
            "update_date": "2024-10-09T00:01:21.001257-04:00",
            "main_image": {
                "id": 481459,
                "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003800/a003875/Pine_Island_comp.1289.jpg",
                "filename": "Pine_Island_comp.1289.jpg",
                "media_type": "Image",
                "alt_text": "Animation showing ice velocity and elevation change with dates, labels and colorbars.",
                "width": 1280,
                "height": 720,
                "pixels": 921600
            }
        }
    ],
    "sources": [],
    "products": [],
    "newer_versions": [],
    "older_versions": [],
    "alternate_versions": []
}