The metaphor of a “slippery slope” is often invoked for things that might quickly get out of control, but in glaciology these words can be applied more literally. In a warming world, we want to know how quickly ice sheets can melt and raise sea level. If melting ice lubricates the base and speeds up ice flow, losses could accelerate.
GPS/GNSS stations also record the gradual strain that accumulates along a fault until it slips again. A new study presents a fresh analysis of that strain in the western United States.
Taryn Roby is transferring from Red Rocks Community College to Metropolitan State University as a rising junior majoring in environmental science and obtaining a water studies certificate.
Antarctica got a rare treat on December 4—a total solar eclipse. The last time that happened was 2003, and we’ll be waiting until 2039 for the next one. This wasn’t just an opportunity for lucky viewers, though. An eclipse near the pole is also an exciting opportunity for science.
The ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system is much more than the alert message on your phone. Detecting earthquakes, characterizing them, and determining the appropriate warning area takes a tremendous amount of infrastructure. With the completion of a recent Cooperative Agreement with the USGS, UNAVCO has improved West Coast geodetic infrastructure so it can be fully integrated into ShakeAlert.
The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has become an instrumental part of our daily lives. It is used for things like navigation, land surveying, and mapping, just to name a few. While the geodetic applications of GNSS are incredibly powerful, they do encounter limitations because of unknowns in their calculations. One important factor that contributes … Continued
Why have a GPS station in the middle of a lake? Based on a recent study published by Lucas Holden at RMIT University and Kristine Larson and the University of Colorado Boulder in the Journal of Geodesy, the reflection of the satellite signal can actually allow the station to precisely measure the changing water level around it. The researchers tested this out with ten years of data at Lake Taupō, New Zealand.
Weather satellites track hurricanes through a number of different types of measurements but all things have strengths and weaknesses. And when it comes to severe weather, there’s no such thing as too much data for improving forecasts. Believe it or not, GPS stations may be able to help.
Several earthquakes jolted the western US last year, including magnitude 6.5 events near Challis, Idaho and the Monte Cristo Range in Nevada, as well as a magnitude 5.7 near Salt Lake City and a 5.8 in Owens Valley, California. Damage was thankfully minor, but the quakes served as reminders that these are seismically active places. … Continued
The Data Access Interface-2 (DAI2) has been the primary method of searching and accessing GNSS data in the UNAVCO archive since 2007. It is a tool that was built in the Adobe Flash environment. Adobe announced in 2017 that Flash will reach end-of-life on December 31, 2020.