NASA: Greenland Ice Loss Far Greater than Gain
23.10.2006 - Other
For the first time NASA scientists have analyzed data from direct, detailed satellite measurements to show that ice losses now far surpass ice gains in the shrinking Greenland ice sheet. The study appeared in Science Express, the advance edition of Science, on 19 October.
Using a novel technique that reveals regional changes in the weight of the massive ice sheet across the entire continent, scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, report that Greenland's southern coastal regions lost 155 gigatons of ice per year between 2003 and 2005 from excess melting and icebergs, while the high-elevation interior gained 54 gigatons annually from excess snowfall.
The new results capture more precisely where changes are taking place and show a dramatic speed up in the rate of ice mass loss since the late 1990's that is nearly identical to reports earlier this year based on radar measurements of glacier acceleration. Although the ice mass loss observed in the new study is less than half of what other recent research has reported, the results show that Greenland is now losing 20% more mass than it receives from new snowfall each year.
