Climate Change: Study Finds a 3X Increase in Loss of Ice Sheets at Both Poles

Results in a study published last Thursday in the journal Science are showing that the increase in loss of ice at both the north and south Polar Regions is increasing at a rate 3 times greater each year. The study was based on data collected and analyzed by 47 researchers from 26 laboratories with the support of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). The agencies helped collect data from multiple satellites and aircraft producing the most comprehensive and accurate assessment to date of ice sheet losses in Greenland and Antarctica and their contributions to sea level rise.

In the report, the researchers discovered that the combined rate of melting for the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica has increased during the last 20 years and are now losing more than three times as much ice each year (equivalent to sea level rise of 0.04 inches or 0.95 millimeters) as they were in the 1990s (equivalent to 0.01 inches or 0.27 millimeters). About two-thirds of the loss is coming from Greenland, with the rest from Antarctica.

While some earlier observations about the melting in Polar Regions were less accurate, the new estimates in the report are more than twice as accurate because of the inclusion of more satellite data. The study shows conclusive evidence which confirms that both Antarctica and Greenland are losing ice. Combined, melting of these ice sheets contributed 0.44 inches (11.1 millimeters) to global sea levels since 1992.

“Both ice sheets appear to be losing more ice now than 20 years ago, but the pace of ice loss from Greenland is extraordinary, with nearly a five-fold increase since the mid-1990s,” said one scientist. “In contrast, the overall loss of ice in Antarctica has remained fairly constant with the data suggesting a 50-percent increase in Antarctic ice loss during the last decade.”