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 | Ice Bridge Team leaves for Antarctica
~ NASA
Oct. 12, 2009 - As part of Operation Ice Bridge, NASA's DC-8, a flying laboratory, will take off today from Edwards, California for Punta Arenas, Chile where NASA's Ice Bridge Team will be based until mid-November to study Antarctica. | | Sea ice in Antarctica | | | |
OPERATION ICE BRIDGE is a six-year campaign of yearly flights over Earth's polar regions that began last spring. During this expedition, The Ice Bridge Team will conduct up to 17 flights over West Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula, and coastal areas where sea ice is prevalent. Each round-trip flight will last about 11 hours with two-thirds of the time devoted to getting to and from Antarctica. According to NASA, the Ice Bridge flights will help scientists maintain the record of changes to sea ice and ice sheets that have been collected since 2003 by NASA's ICESat (Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite). ICESat launched in January 2003 and since then, its sole instrument -- a precise laser Word of the Day altimeter - has helped scientists map ice sheet elevation, calculate sea ice thickness, and monitor how both have changed. The new flights will lack the continent-wide coverage that can be achieved by satellite, so researchers carefully select key target locations. But the flights will also turn up new information not possible from orbit, such as the shape of the terrain below the ice. "Space-based instruments like the ICESat lasers are the only way to find out where change is occurring in remote, continent-sized ice sheets like Antarctica," Tom Wagner, NASA scientist, said. "But aircraft missions like Ice Bridge allow us to follow up with more detailed studies and make other measurements critical to modeling sea level rise." There are differences between the Arctic region and Antarctica that will now be studied in more detail. "We don't see the same sea ice changes in Antarctica that we see in the Arctic, and the reason is that the system is more complex," Thorsten Markus, NASA expert in sea ice, said. "But the fact that we don't see the same changes in Antarctica that we see in the Arctic doesn't make it less important to study those changes. It's really important for us to understand the global climate system." |
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Dr Clarke's winning Video from the 2009 Flu Prevention PSA Contest
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FLU SYMPTOMS
Symptoms of the 2009 H1N1 flu are: fever, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue, according to the CDC. Some people have reported vomiting and diarrhea and other people may have symptoms without fever. Consult your doctor, particularly if you are in a high risk group for complications from the flu. Below are warning signs (adults and children) that need immediate medical attention.
Emergency Warning Signs:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC
If you become ill and experience any of the following warning signs, seek emergency medical care.
In children, emergency warning signs that need urgent medical attention include:
- Fast breathing or trouble breathing
- Bluish or gray skin color
- Not drinking enough fluids
- Severe or persistent vomiting
- Not waking up or not interacting
- Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
- Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough
In adults, emergency warning signs that need urgent medical attention include:
- Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
- Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
- Sudden dizziness
- Confusion
- Severe or persistent vomiting
- Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough
CDC info for: Pregnant Women and Parents with Infants
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