NASA, since 2001 has been watching this glacier for it's melting. This year with the arrival of spring into the southern hemisphere of Earth delivered a greater deterioration of the Pine Island Glacier.
Published on Sep 12, 2013
For five years an international team
of experts, led by NASA emeritus glaciologist Robert Bindschadler and
funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA, planned and
orchestrated a mission to drill through the floating ice shelf of the
Pine Island Glacier. Finally they persevered over harsh weather
conditions, a short Antarctic field season, and the remote location of
the glacier, and installed a variety of instruments to measure the
properties of the ocean water below the ice shelf. 
