Humans are known for emitting heat-trapping gases and this somehow contributes to the changes that are seen on Earth. Melting ice in Greenland is one change that is most talked about right now. Other than that, ice floating in cold ocean waters, ice within large glaciers or mountain tops are also melting away fast as well and this is due to global warming.

Sources report that scientists used to fly out once a year to check the elevations of the ice sheets. But recently, they've decided to check more often to study the glaciers more extensively.

"Now we're starting to complete the picture of what happens to them as the year goes on, especially after most of the summer melting has already occurred, so we can measure their cumulative response to that melt." Joe MacGregor, IceBridge's deputy project scientist and a glaciologist with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said.

Greenland Melting Ice Sheet's Effect On Ocean Levels

NASA studies melting ice sheets in order to determine how ice loss affects ocean levels. Sea levels rise when the water runs into the ocean, but in the case of melting sea ice, it will won't raise ocean levels since it is already floating in ocean water.

Measuring melting ice sheet has been practiced for decades. It is not just a way to determine global warming, but it also helps understand sea level impacts by observing melting glaciers. According to UPL.com, long duration and high-resolution measurements are methods used by scientists to fully understand the trend that is going on with the ice sheets in Greenland and Antartica. Since then, NASA was able to estimate the amount of ice loss since 2011-2014. Greenland has experienced a total of 270 gigatons ice loss and that is already equivalent to 110 million Olympic size swimming pools' worth of water within 3 years.