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A new laser-based technology from the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) holds promise to tell how the melting of earth's frozen regions may affect our climate. This opens a new vista for researchers to better track the melting or growth of ice sheets, glaciers and sea ice. A high-altitude aircraft from NASA flew over the icy Arctic ocean and the snow-covered terrain of Greenland recently. Aboard that aircraft flew the Multiple Altimeter Beam Experimental Lidar, or MABEL, which is an airborne test-bed instrument for NASA's ICESat-2 satellite mission - slated to launch in 2017.Armed with a new photon-counting technique, MABEL flew over southwest Greenland's glaciers and sea ice to test a new method of measuring the height of earth from space. The MABEL sent out pulses of green laser light and measured how long it took individual light photons to bounce off earth's surface and return.