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there's been predictions that summer sea

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ice cover will be gone by 2040 which is

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just around the corner these huge masses

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of ice can change far more rapidly than

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we thought they don't change on

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timescales of centuries we've seen

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changes within a decade which were quite

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significant despite its name the

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International polar year research

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project runs two full years to allow

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thousands of scientists from over 60

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nations to study to complete cycles of

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Earth's North and South Poles they will

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study all aspects of the poles land

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regions ice sheets glaciers sea ice

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oceans and the atmosphere we live in

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area of satellite observations we have

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more quantitative information we go

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beyond telling you the green ice sheet

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is melting and losing mass we can

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actually put a number to that and

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convert that number into something

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we know that from studying the Earth's

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poles that if you take an ice core it

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can tell us about the climate history of

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the earth they look at the trapped gases

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in the ice core and then they can tell

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for example how much carbon dioxide was

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in the atmosphere how much methane was

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the atmosphere other greenhouse gases I

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think to the general public it's

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difficult to relate to a warming of air

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temperature if the air temperature warms

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up one or two degrees I don't think it

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speaks very much if hear stories about

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the ice caps melting the sea is being

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gone by 2040 or even polar bears dying

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because of it there's no sea ice for

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them to survive they can relate to that

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the consequences both natural and

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man-made are seen at the poles sooner

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than elsewhere this international

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warrior the main goal is to establish

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the state of health of the polar regions

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and other reference for future studies

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NASA scientists are using polls to learn

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about our world and others the ice

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sheets of Earth and the polar regions

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are true frontiers and their frontiers

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that link earth to the planets beyond

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Earth in 2008 during the Nike why NASA

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it will land in the northern polar

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region of Mars will be in that

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environment that we can dig down into

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the soil and sample the ISIS in the soil

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that's their and analyze it in our

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onboard instruments in 2008 during the

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IP why NASA will launch the lunar

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reconnaissance orbiter and this vehicle

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will explore in earnest using remote

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sensing the poles of the moon relate

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them back to our earth polls even to the

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poles of Mars and open that frontier we

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hope for human presence and eventually

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sustain human presence so we can

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actually learn about ourselves by

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exploring the moon Mars Saturn Saturn's

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icy moons mercury even Venus and apply

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it to home all through this scientific