A Reconciled Estimate of Ice-Sheet Mass Balance

• Main Authors: Shepherd, Andrew, Ivins, Erik R, A, Geruo, Barletta, Valentina R, Bentley, Mike J, Bettadpur, Srinivas, Briggs, Kate H, Bromwich, David H, Forsberg, René, Galin, Natalia, Horwath, Martin, Jacobs, Stan, Joughin, Ian, King, Matt A, Lenaerts, Jan TM, Li, Jilu, Ligtenberg, Stefan RM, Luckman, Adrian, Luthcke, Scott B, McMillan, Malcolm, Meister, Rakia, Milne, Glenn, Mouginot, Jeremie, Muir, Alan, Nicolas, Julien P, Paden, John, Payne, Antony J, Pritchard, Hamish, Rignot, Eric, Rott, Helmut, Sørensen, Louise Sandberg, Scambos, Ted A, Scheuchl, Bernd, Schrama, Ernst JO, Smith, Ben, Sundal, Aud V, van Angelen, Jan H, van de Berg, Willem J, van den Broeke, Michiel R, Vaughan, David G, Velicogna, Isabella, Wahr, John, Whitehouse, Pippa L, Wingham, Duncan J, Yi, Donghui, Young, Duncan, Zwally, H Jay
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 2012
• Subjects: Climate Action; Antarctic Regions; Climate Change; Geographic Information Systems; Greenland; Ice Cover; General Science & Technology; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; East Antarctica; West Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vq404h7

We combined an ensemble of satellite altimetry, interferometry, and gravimetry data sets using common geographical regions, time intervals, and models of surface mass balance and glacial isostatic adjustment to estimate the mass balance of Earth's polar ice sheets. We find that there is good agreement between different satellite methods--especially in Greenland and West Antarctica--and that combining satellite data sets leads to greater certainty. Between 1992 and 2011, the ice sheets of Greenland, East Antarctica, West Antarctica, and the Antarctic Peninsula changed in mass by -142 ± 49, +14 ± 43, -65 ± 26, and -20 ± 14 gigatonnes year(-1), respectively. Since 1992, the polar ice sheets have contributed, on average, 0.59 ± 0.20 millimeter year(-1) to the rate of global sea-level rise.