Record decline of ice sheets

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-08/awih-rdo082014.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 20-Aug-2014

Contact: Sina Loeschke
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
Record decline of ice sheets

For the first time scientists map elevation changes of Greenlandic and Antarctic glaciers

"The new elevation maps are snapshots of the current state of the ice sheets. The elevations are very accurate, to just a few metres in height, and cover close to 16 million km2 of the area of the ice sheets. This is 500,000 square kilometres more than any previous elevation model from altimetry", says lead-author Dr. Veit Helm, glaciologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven.

•••••

But whereas both the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Peninsula, on the far west of the continent, are rapidly losing volume, East Antarctica is gaining volume – though at a moderate rate that doesn't compensate the losses on the other side of the continent.