An enhanced approach to capturing changes on the Earth's
surface via satellite could provide a more accurate account of how ice sheets,
river basins and other geographic areas are changing as a result of natural and
human factors. In a first application, the technique revealed sharper-than-ever
details about Greenland's massive ice sheet, including that the rate at which
it is melting might be accelerating more slowly than predicted.
Princeton University researchers developed a mathematical
framework and a computer code to accurately capture ground-level conditions
collected on particular geographic regions by the GRACE satellites (Gravity
Recovery And Climate Experiment), according to a report in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences. A joint project of NASA and the German
Aerospace Center, GRACE measures gravity to depict how mass such as ice or
water is distributed over the Earth's surface. A change in GRACE data can signify
a change in mass, such as a receding glacier.