As our planet continues to warm, giant masses of ice continue to break off of the polar ice caps in the form of giant icebergs. Now, the European Space Agency has developed a new GPS satellite tracking system complete with an AI neural network all to track these giant floating icebergs.
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00:00 As our planet continues to warm, giant masses of ice continue to break off of the polar
00:07 ice caps in the form of giant icebergs.
00:10 Now the European Space Agency has developed a new GPS satellite tracking system, complete
00:14 with an AI neural network, all in the name of keeping track of these giant floating icebergs.
00:19 This is Dr. Bob Lucina, an oceanographer, to explain why tracking these calved icebergs
00:24 is so important.
00:25 So one of the big concerns about the ice sheets is that there could be some runaway effects.
00:32 So as calving of ice sheets becomes, increases in frequency, then that in itself could create
00:40 an acceleration of the ice sheet melt and further calving.
00:45 That's the more existential concern, where they say tracking in real time these calving
00:48 events would allow us to more easily see the point of no return with regards to the global
00:52 climate crisis.
00:53 But there are also other concerns as well.
00:56 Concerns regarding sea transit and communications around the world.
00:59 It's important to track icebergs in real time.
01:03 For a lot of that's for operational reasons.
01:07 So it affects shipping, it can be a danger to shipping.
01:11 There are other hazards such as the icebergs can often scrape the bottom actually in coastal
01:17 regions and our submarine cables, our communication lines are often dependent on.
01:23 Meanwhile, oceanographers also warn about the effects those icebergs have on the ecosystems
01:29 into which they float, melting and cooling large areas of ocean where they reside and
01:33 leaving a massive influx of fresh water in their wake.
01:36 With the experts saying the better we can track this, the better prepared we may be
01:40 to handle the fallout.
01:41 [Music]
01:45 (whooshing)