In last week’s paper, Zwally, who is now affiliated with the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center at the University of Maryland in College Park, said his satellite and meteorological data analysis showed that overall Antarctic land ice has gained mass.
Advertisement
“We’re essentially in agreement with other studies that show an increase in ice discharge in the Antarctic Peninsula and the Thwaites and Pine Island region of West Antarctica”, said Jay Zwally, a NASA glaciologist and lead author.
Many scientists agree that the Antarctic Peninsula and parts of West Antarctica are losing ice and that the rate of loss is increasing.
Zwally said he now will be watching for an increase in the pace of ice thinning in one area of Western Antarctica, where the climate is warming, and whether there are changes in snowfalls.
The study used ice cores to estimate annual snow accumulation from 1712 to 2010 along West Antarctica’s coast.
In general, the Antarctic ice has been growing over the last 10,000 years, since the end of the last ice age, as a warmer and more water-saturated atmosphere increased snowfall over the polar continent.
He says that, if his group’s data is correct, the ice melt in the West Antarctic may eventually catch up to the thickening influence from the increased snowfall, within about 20 to 30 years from now.
“The good news is that Antarctica is not now contributing to sea level rise, but is taking 0.23 millimeters per year away”, said Dr. Zwally.
A FEW months ago NASA scientists revealed ice sheets in the northern and southern hemisphere were melting so fast it would cause sea levels to rise by a metre.
In order to help more accurately measure changes in ice thickness, NASA is developing the ICESat-2, scheduled to launch in 2018.
If true, Zwelly’s results would refute findings-and methodology-used in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2013 assessment, now the baseline for all other climate change research.
However, with ocean warming and ice loss at the edges of the continent, this arrangement will change. “But it is clear that further greenhouse-gas emission will heighten the risk of an ice collapse in West Antarctica and more unstoppable sea-level rise”.
Meanwhile, other studies have raised alarm bells that the melting, brought on by global warming and driven by the burning of fossil fuels, may have reached an irreversible point and will likely produce a three-meter rise in sea levels. This information coincides with previous findings.
In a press release, Feldmann said the effects of climate change will begin immediately.
He also said that if these models will be applied to other data then the results would match his more accurate claims about the real conditions of Antarctica’s ice sheets.
The latest study was published in the Journal of Glaciology. 112 billion tons of it, to be precise.
Advertisement
Sea level rises suggested by the research would impact every area of the globe; it is estimated around 150 million people live within just 3 feet of elevation above current sea levels.
