One stunning image shows why NASA is launching a new mission to study the melting Arctic - The Washington Post
▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/09/02/one-image-shows-why-nasa-is-launching-a-new-mission-to-study-the-mel
The image above initially drew a lot of attention in the context of the California drought, but Morton explains that it captures much more than changes in groundwater. It also captures changes in the mass of ice. Terrestrial water storage, which is shown in the map above, “consists of groundwater, soil moisture and permafrost, surface water, snow and ice, and wet biomass,” notes one NASA researcher. It “tends to be dominated by snow and ice in polar and alpine regions, by soil moisture in mid-latitudes, and by surface water in wet, tropical regions such as the Amazon.”