Recent Sea-Level Contributions of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets
After a century of polar exploration, the past decade of satellite measurements has painted an altogether new picture of how Earth's ice sheets are changing. As global temperatures have risen, so have rates of snowfall, ice melting, and glacier flow. Although the balance between these opposing...
Published in: | Science |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
2007
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1136776 https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1136776 |
id |
craaas:10.1126/science.1136776 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
craaas:10.1126/science.1136776 2024-06-23T07:45:53+00:00 Recent Sea-Level Contributions of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets Shepherd, Andrew Wingham, Duncan 2007 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1136776 https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1136776 en eng American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science volume 315, issue 5818, page 1529-1532 ISSN 0036-8075 1095-9203 journal-article 2007 craaas https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1136776 2024-06-13T04:01:36Z After a century of polar exploration, the past decade of satellite measurements has painted an altogether new picture of how Earth's ice sheets are changing. As global temperatures have risen, so have rates of snowfall, ice melting, and glacier flow. Although the balance between these opposing processes has varied considerably on a regional scale, data show that Antarctica and Greenland are each losing mass overall. Our best estimate of their combined imbalance is about 125 gigatons per year of ice, enough to raise sea level by 0.35 millimeters per year. This is only a modest contribution to the present rate of sea-level rise of 3.0 millimeters per year. However, much of the loss from Antarctica and Greenland is the result of the flow of ice to the ocean from ice streams and glaciers, which has accelerated over the past decade. In both continents, there are suspected triggers for the accelerated ice discharge—surface and ocean warming, respectively—and, over the course of the 21st century, these processes could rapidly counteract the snowfall gains predicted by present coupled climate models. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica glacier Greenland AAAS Resource Center (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Antarctic Greenland The Antarctic Science 315 5818 1529 1532 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
AAAS Resource Center (American Association for the Advancement of Science) |
op_collection_id |
craaas |
language |
English |
description |
After a century of polar exploration, the past decade of satellite measurements has painted an altogether new picture of how Earth's ice sheets are changing. As global temperatures have risen, so have rates of snowfall, ice melting, and glacier flow. Although the balance between these opposing processes has varied considerably on a regional scale, data show that Antarctica and Greenland are each losing mass overall. Our best estimate of their combined imbalance is about 125 gigatons per year of ice, enough to raise sea level by 0.35 millimeters per year. This is only a modest contribution to the present rate of sea-level rise of 3.0 millimeters per year. However, much of the loss from Antarctica and Greenland is the result of the flow of ice to the ocean from ice streams and glaciers, which has accelerated over the past decade. In both continents, there are suspected triggers for the accelerated ice discharge—surface and ocean warming, respectively—and, over the course of the 21st century, these processes could rapidly counteract the snowfall gains predicted by present coupled climate models. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Shepherd, Andrew Wingham, Duncan |
spellingShingle |
Shepherd, Andrew Wingham, Duncan Recent Sea-Level Contributions of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets |
author_facet |
Shepherd, Andrew Wingham, Duncan |
author_sort |
Shepherd, Andrew |
title |
Recent Sea-Level Contributions of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets |
title_short |
Recent Sea-Level Contributions of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets |
title_full |
Recent Sea-Level Contributions of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets |
title_fullStr |
Recent Sea-Level Contributions of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets |
title_full_unstemmed |
Recent Sea-Level Contributions of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets |
title_sort |
recent sea-level contributions of the antarctic and greenland ice sheets |
publisher |
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1136776 https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1136776 |
geographic |
Antarctic Greenland The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Greenland The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica glacier Greenland |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica glacier Greenland |
op_source |
Science volume 315, issue 5818, page 1529-1532 ISSN 0036-8075 1095-9203 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1136776 |
container_title |
Science |
container_volume |
315 |
container_issue |
5818 |
container_start_page |
1529 |
op_container_end_page |
1532 |
_version_ |
1802642871880253440 |