Ice is the focus of latest Nasa missions

Nasa next week launch its first dedicated oceanographic research mission to study the ice cover in the Arctic Ocean, officials said on Tuesday.The "Impacts of temperature on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment" mission, or ICESCAPE, will put to sea on the US Coast Guard icebreaker, The Healy, on June 15.

More than 40 scientists will expend five weeks at sea on board The Healy, sampling the physical, chemical and biological properties of the ocean waters and sea ice, to try to determine how change in the Arctic are affecting the ocean's chemistry and ecosystem.Last year, a study using data from a Nasa satellite showed that Arctic sea ice thinned dramatically between the winters of 2004 and 2008, with thick older ice shrinking by the equal of Alaska's land area.

Arctic sea ice is now "just a thin veneer five to 10 feet thick that is actually susceptible to climate change," Don Perovich, one of the chief scientists on ICESCAPE, said on Tuesday.One of the key efforts of the ICESCAPE mission will be to see how change in the Arctic could be changing the ocean's ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

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