At first glance, they are a stunning image of the beauty of nature.

However, scientists warn that in fact the meltwater ponds spotted in Antarctica may have a chilling message.

Researchers say nearly 8,000 dazzling blue lakes appeared on the Langhovde Glacier in East Antarctica between 2000 and 2013 - and they could be a sign the glacier is doomed.

Satellite image shows a group of lakes atop Langhovde Glacier, East Antarctica.

SUPRAGLACIAL LAKES Supraglacial lakes (SGLs) are ponds of water that develop in topographic undulations on glaciers and ice sheets during the ablation season. They have been extensively studied in Greenland and, to a lesser extent, the Antarctic Peninsula, where they are thought to influence ice motion and ice shelf stability Advertisement

They claim the results show the largest ice mass on Earth is now showing a surprising feature similar to Greenland, which is melting at a far faster rate.

Known as supraglacial lakes, the meltwater ponds form as warm air heats the surface of an ice sheet - and are a common sight on Greenland.

However, the new study used satellite images to analyse the coastal Langhovde Glacier in East Antarctica’s Dronning Maud Land.

It found the lakes appear to have then been draining down into the glacier, weakening it and making it more likely to fracture and break apart.

The study was led by Emily Langley of Durham, and Stewart Jamieson and Chris Stokes from Durham with Amber Leeson of Lancaster University, and was recently published online by Geophysical Research Letters.

Drainage of some of Langhovde's supraglacial lakes over a 12 day period between the 14th (left) and 26th (right) of January 2005. Images are compiled from ASTER data provided by the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) managed by the NASA Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) project.

'The parallels between these mechanisms, and those observed on Greenland/the Antarctic Peninsula, suggest that lakes may similarly affect rates and patterns of ice melt, ice flow and ice shelf disintegration in East Antarctica,' they wrote.

Four examples of meltwater ponds in greenland

The study in Geophysical Research Letters drew on satellite and meteorological data to construct one of the first multi-year records of lake evolution at East Antarctica.

Recently scientists have calculated exactly how much of the continent is not buried away.

It turns out a tiny amount, only 0.18 per cent, is exposed rock, a new study has revealed.

But this might not last long as the effects of global warming kick in.

For the first time, scientists have calculated exactly how much of the continent is not buried away. It turns out a tiny amount, only 0.18 per cent, is exposed rock, a new study has revealed. It shows less than previously thought

THE EXTENSIVE ANTARCTIC SNOW The way snow, clouds, and rock look alike in satellite images has caused problems for mapping teams for a while. This is especially a problem in Antarctica, where the entire continent is made of nothing else, and extensive cloud cover and widespread shaded regions lead to errors. But now in the journal Cryosphere, scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have been able to produce accurate quantification of how much of the continent is not buried under snow. It turns out a tiny amount, only 0.18 per cent, is exposed rock, a new study has revealed. Advertisement

The way snow, clouds, and rock look alike in satellite images has caused problems for mapping teams for a while.

This is especially a problem in Antarctica, where the entire continent is made of nothing else, and extensive cloud cover and widespread shaded regions lead to errors.

But now in the journal Cryosphere, scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have been able to produce accurate quantification of how much of the continent is not buried under snow

'Maps of exposed rock in Antarctica are a key base dataset for research on the continent for a range of researchers and subject areas, including glaciology, geology and geomorphology, and the existing digital map has been downloaded over 2500 times in the last three years,' said the paper's lead author, Alex Burton-Johnson of British Antarctic Survey.

'However, this dataset was manually derived and is largely inaccurate, with poor location accuracy and frequent incorrect classification of shaded snow as rock.

'Automated methods have produced accurate maps from satellite images at lower latitudes, but extensive unavoidable shade and clouds in Antarctica render the methods by which they were derived unsuitable towards the Poles.'

The researchers used the latest Nasa and USGS satellite data, including Nasa's Landsat 8, to produce an automated map of rock outcrop across the entire Antarctic continent.

Everyone knows it is a cold, desolate place, but just how much of the Antarctic is not covered in snow has only been estimated as 'less than one per cent' – until now. Pictured is a nunatak on the Churchill Peninsula, Antarctica

The way snow, clouds, and rock look alike in satellite images has caused problems for mapping teams for a while. Illustration of the misclassification of cloud cover as rock pixels shown left. Example of the overestimation caused by clouds shown right

THE OZONE LAYER IS HEALING The hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic has finally begun to ‘heal’ after persisting for years. A new study has recorded an ozone increase in the icy region, suggesting the agreement signed nearly three decades ago to limit the use of substances responsible for ozone depletion, is having a positive effect. As well as creating an identifying ozone increase, it’s slowing the rate of ozone depletion in the stratosphere - Earth's second major atmospheric layer. Advertisement

As the accuracy and sensitivity of remote-sensing satellites improve, there is an increasing demand from the scientific community for more accurate and updated base datasets to improve geological surveying and monitoring.

But differentiating rock outcrop from snow and ice is a particular problem in Antarctica.

Now that the automation is in place, new images from improved satellite cameras can be fed straight into it.

Over time, means a much more accurate map of the continent can be produced.

The team also made their script publicly available. This means teams all over the world will be able to help build an accurate picture of Antarctic ice changes, as the impact of climate change takes its toll on the continent.

The Antarctic is one part of the world you might have thought would be affected by global warming. But for the last two decades, the Antarctic peninsula – the tip of the continent nearest to South America - has not got any warmer, scientists found in separate research, published last month