Interview on Remote Sensing Technology with Professor Eric Rignot. He teaches Earth System Science at UC Irvine and is a glaciologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena
A new study by Professor Eric Rignot and researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, presented in May, 2014, finds a rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in an irreversible state of decline.
The Amundsen Sea Embayment with its five glaciers is one of the hardest to reach areas of West Antarctica. The advent of over-flights by airplanes and now observation from satellites was a game changer for research, says Professor Rignot.
This is an interview about the current technology of observation, and the way in which results on glacier thickness, movement, temperature, and contact line with warming ocean waters are mapped. Professor Rignot is among the leaders in the new field of remote sensing technologies. He pioneered advances in radar interferometry.
This phone interview, held on May 23, 2014, addresses the questions how NASA and the European Space Agency, along with scientists, are collecting data from space, not just from airplanes.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)
