Accelerated Sea-Level Rise from West Antarctica

Recent aircraft and satellite laser altimeter surveys of the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica show that local glaciers are discharging about 250 cubic kilometers of ice per year to the ocean, almost 60% more than is accumulated within their catchment basins. This discharge is sufficient to rai...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2004-10, Vol.306 (5694), p.255-258
Main Authors: Thomas, R., Rignot, E., Casassa, G., Kanagaratnam, P., Acuña, C., Akins, T., Brecher, H., Frederick, E., Gogineni, P., Krabill, W., Manizade, S., Ramamoorthy, H., Rivera, A., Russell, R., Sonntag, J., Swift, R., Yungel, J., Zwally, J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceleration
Aircraft
Antarctic regions
Artificial satellites in remote sensing
Earth, ocean, space
Environmental aspects
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
Glacial accumulation
Glacial retreat
Glaciers
Lasers
Location
Marine
Measurement
Oceanography
Physics of the oceans
Radar altimetry
Satellite remote sensing
Sea level
Space flight
Surface waves, tides and sea level. Seiches
Topographical elevation
Vehicular flight
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Summary:Recent aircraft and satellite laser altimeter surveys of the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica show that local glaciers are discharging about 250 cubic kilometers of ice per year to the ocean, almost 60% more than is accumulated within their catchment basins. This discharge is sufficient to raise sea level by more than 0.2 millimeters per year. Glacier thinning rates near the coast during 2002-2003 are much larger than those observed during the 1990s. Most of these glaciers flow into floating ice shelves over bedrock up to hundreds of meters deeper than previous estimates, providing exit routes for ice from further inland if ice-sheet collapse is under way.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1099650