NASA is not only busy with the discoveries, analyzes, and technologies into space, but it’s also keeping an eye on Earth as well. After analyzing more than 20.000 square miles of the Arctic, NASA found something alarming. The observation had the purpose of analyzing the methane cover from the North Pole. The idea of taking an eye on the methane cover is because greenhouse gases are coming into the atmosphere from these points.
Two Millions Hotspots of Greenhouse Gas in the Artic
For finding out precisely how many hotspots of greenhouse gas the Artic has, NASA used the Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment short for ABoVE. ABoVE is practically a formation of planes with equipment based on Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and Next Generation (NG).
Through the technique and technology of ABoVE, the methane hotspots can become visible. NASA never thought that it would found more than two million hotspots in the Arctic region. One of the specialists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from Pasadena, California, Clayton Elder, says that the hotspots are showing in general 3.000 parts per million of methane from the ground to the airborne sensor.
NASA Found Greenhous Gas Hotspots
Besides that, the problem is not only the findings of the two million hotspots of methane but the climate change that is happening right now and the vicious cycle that appears. In English, that means we have methane in the permafrost, and because of the warming climate, the permafrost is melting at a slow pace. The melting of the permafrost is a serious problem because it represents the frozen layer of the surface. The size of the permafrost is up to 18 million square kilometers, and it goes until the Northern Hemisphere.
In conclusion, when the permafrost is melting, a variety of rocks, soil, sand, and many plants, and microbes will come exposed after millions of years. Besides this, we will not only have the carbon dioxide that we emit right now, but we will also have the CO2 trapped in the ice layer of the microbes and dead plants. The cycle will be wrong in time an affect the planet with a surplus of 1.5 trillion metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, resulting in a greenhouse and warm climate.
