Mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet
The Antarctic contribution to sea-level rise has long been uncertain. While regional variability in ice dynamics has been revealed, a picture of mass changes throughout the continental ice sheet is lacking. Here, we use satellite radar altimetry to measure the elevation change of 72% of the grounded...
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2006
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ftucl:oai:eprints.ucl.ac.uk.OAI2:8917 2023-05-15T13:53:53+02:00 Mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet Wingham, DJ Shepherd, A Muir, A Marshall, GJ 2006-07-15 http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/8917/ unknown ROYAL SOCIETY PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY A-MATHEMATICAL PHYSICAL AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES , 364 (1844) 1627 - 1635. (2006) Antarctica sea level mass balance altimetry WEST ANTARCTICA CLIMATE-CHANGE POLAR ICE VARIABILITY PENINSULA OCEAN Article 2006 ftucl 2016-10-20T22:17:04Z The Antarctic contribution to sea-level rise has long been uncertain. While regional variability in ice dynamics has been revealed, a picture of mass changes throughout the continental ice sheet is lacking. Here, we use satellite radar altimetry to measure the elevation change of 72% of the grounded ice sheet during the period 1992-2003. Depending on the density of the snow giving rise to the observed elevation fluctuations, the ice sheet mass trend falls in the range -5-+85Gt yr(-1). We find that data from climate model reanalyses are not able to characterise the contemporary snowfall fluctuation with useful accuracy and our best estimate of the overall mass trend-growth of 27 +/- 29 Gt yr(-1) -is based on an assessment of the expected snowfall variability. Mass gains from accumulating snow, particularly on the Antarctic Peninsula and within East Antarctica, exceed the ice dynamic mass loss from West Antarctica. The result exacerbates the difficulty of explaining twentieth century sea-level rise. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica University College London: UCL Discovery Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula East Antarctica The Antarctic West Antarctica |
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Open Polar |
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University College London: UCL Discovery |
op_collection_id |
ftucl |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Antarctica sea level mass balance altimetry WEST ANTARCTICA CLIMATE-CHANGE POLAR ICE VARIABILITY PENINSULA OCEAN |
spellingShingle |
Antarctica sea level mass balance altimetry WEST ANTARCTICA CLIMATE-CHANGE POLAR ICE VARIABILITY PENINSULA OCEAN Wingham, DJ Shepherd, A Muir, A Marshall, GJ Mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet |
topic_facet |
Antarctica sea level mass balance altimetry WEST ANTARCTICA CLIMATE-CHANGE POLAR ICE VARIABILITY PENINSULA OCEAN |
description |
The Antarctic contribution to sea-level rise has long been uncertain. While regional variability in ice dynamics has been revealed, a picture of mass changes throughout the continental ice sheet is lacking. Here, we use satellite radar altimetry to measure the elevation change of 72% of the grounded ice sheet during the period 1992-2003. Depending on the density of the snow giving rise to the observed elevation fluctuations, the ice sheet mass trend falls in the range -5-+85Gt yr(-1). We find that data from climate model reanalyses are not able to characterise the contemporary snowfall fluctuation with useful accuracy and our best estimate of the overall mass trend-growth of 27 +/- 29 Gt yr(-1) -is based on an assessment of the expected snowfall variability. Mass gains from accumulating snow, particularly on the Antarctic Peninsula and within East Antarctica, exceed the ice dynamic mass loss from West Antarctica. The result exacerbates the difficulty of explaining twentieth century sea-level rise. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wingham, DJ Shepherd, A Muir, A Marshall, GJ |
author_facet |
Wingham, DJ Shepherd, A Muir, A Marshall, GJ |
author_sort |
Wingham, DJ |
title |
Mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet |
title_short |
Mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet |
title_full |
Mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet |
title_fullStr |
Mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet |
title_sort |
mass balance of the antarctic ice sheet |
publisher |
ROYAL SOCIETY |
publishDate |
2006 |
url |
http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/8917/ |
geographic |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula East Antarctica The Antarctic West Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula East Antarctica The Antarctic West Antarctica |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
op_source |
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY A-MATHEMATICAL PHYSICAL AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES , 364 (1844) 1627 - 1635. (2006) |
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1766259362986196992 |