Pervasive ice sheet mass loss reflects competing ocean and atmosphere processes

2020/04/30 by Ben Smith, H. A. Fricker, Alex Gardner +12 · 13 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Medicine · #Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics #Cryospheric studies and observations #Winter Sports Injuries and Performance

paper · doi:10.1126/science.aaz5845

openalex publication_date 2020/04/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26

Abstract

Quantifying changes in Earth's ice sheets and identifying the climate drivers are central to improving sea level projections. We provide unified estimates of grounded and floating ice mass change from 2003 to 2019 using NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) and ICESat-2 satellite laser altimetry. Our data reveal patterns likely linked to competing climate processes: Ice loss from coastal Greenland (increased surface melt), Antarctic ice shelves (increased ocean melting), and Greenland and Antarctic outlet glaciers (dynamic response to ocean melting) was partially compensated by mass gains over ice sheet interiors (increased snow accumulation). Losses outpaced gains, with grounded-ice loss from Greenland (200 billion tonnes per year) and Antarctica (118 billion tonnes per year) contributing 14 millimeters to sea level. Mass lost from West Antarctica's ice shelves accounted for more than 30% of that region's total.

Citations

• Iceberg calving from the Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica
• The Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2)

Cited by

• Dynamic Boundaries of Antarctic Active Subglacial Lakes Reveal Underestimated Water Volume Change and Overestimated Lakebed Active Area
• Disentangling the oceanic drivers behind the post-2000 retreat of Sermeq Kujalleq, Greenland (Jakobshavn Isbræ)
• A new model of dry firn-densification constrained by continuous strain measurements near South Pole
• Warming of +1.5 °C is too high for polar ice sheets
• Projections of 21st-century sea-level fall along coastal Greenland
• Towards modelling of corrugation ridges at ice-sheet grounding lines
• Greenland ice sheet climate disequilibrium and committed sea-level rise
• Heat stored in the Earth system 1960–2020: where does the energy go?
• Reversible ice sheet thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the Late Holocene
• Recent Observations of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica Are Consistent With High Rates of Loss in Next 50 Years
• Status of ocean observations in the Indian Sector of the Southern Ocean
• Antarctic seep emergence and discovery in the shallow coastal environment
• Multi-model estimate of Antarctic ice-shelf basal mass budget and ocean drivers

Related

• Dynamic ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet driven by sustained glacier retreat
• Greenland ice sheet climate disequilibrium and committed sea-level rise
• Long-term ice mass changes in Greenland and Antarctica derived from satellite laser ranging [preprint]
• Atmospheric rivers and winter sea ice drive recent reversal in Antarctic ice mass loss
• Global glacier change in the 21st century: Every increase in temperature matters