NASA tools predicts cities to flood due to melting Antarctica, Greenland ice sheets; Mumbai, Mangalore sensitive

A NASA scientists in their new study have warned that India's Mumbai and Mangalore will be one of the cities in the world which will be underwater due to increasing sea level triggered by glacial melting.

The scientists of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), an independent agency of United States federal government, has developed a tool called Gradients Fingerprinting Mapping (GFM). The tool allows planners and the public to forecast increasing sea levels and impact.

According to the developers of the new tool, it is well known that the glaciers will lead to sea level rise but it is not clear or understood how the rise will affect different regions, seas and coastal cities.

According to the new study, sea level rise due to melting of glaciers in not uniform across the globe. The study says that 75% of the earth’s freshwater is stored in glaciers, mostly in Greenland and Antarctica. The researchers are studying how sensitive local sea level rise is to the change in thickness of the ice sheet.

The NASA researchers at Jet Laboratory California to study the effect of rise due to melting ice-sheets in Antarctica and Greenland applied the tool in 293 port cities across the planet.

To study the effect of the rise, the researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California applied the tool in 293 port cities across the planet. The sensitivity is measured in terms of Gradient −dS/dH and classified into four bands (-4 to -2, -2 to 0, 0 to 2, 2 to 4).

According the study for Mangalore the sensitivity is high. The city will be affected to any changes in the thickness of ice in any part of the Greenland or Antarctica. The Indian coastal city will be in much danger of being engulfed under sea water with changes changes in the western part of the Antarctic ice sheet and the southern part of the Greenland ice sheet.

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The study also reveals that with the melting Mangalore will see a higher local sea level of 1.598 mm than Mumbai (1.526 mm).

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According to the study, Colombo, Karachi and Colombo also fall in the high sensitivity category.