Mass Balance of Polar Ice Sheets

Recent advances in the determination of the mass balance of polar ice sheets show that the Greenland Ice Sheet is losing mass by near-coastal thinning, and that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet with thickening in the west and thinning in the north, is probably thinning overall. The mass imbalance of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2002-08, Vol.297 (5586), p.1502-1506
Main Authors: Rignot, Eric, Thomas, Robert H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antarctic regions
Antarctica
Arctic
Brackish
Climate change
Freshwater
Glacial accumulation
Glaciers
Greenland
Ice
Ice sheets
Ice shelves
Lasers
Marine
Mass balance
Melting
Outlet glaciers
Regions
Reviews
Sea level
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Summary:Recent advances in the determination of the mass balance of polar ice sheets show that the Greenland Ice Sheet is losing mass by near-coastal thinning, and that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet with thickening in the west and thinning in the north, is probably thinning overall. The mass imbalance of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is likely to be small, but even its sign cannot yet be determined. Large sectors of ice in southeast Greenland, the Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica, and the Antarctic Peninsula are changing quite rapidly as a result of processes not yet understood.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1073888