Home > Uncategorized > Hmm: Two independent satellite studies show that ice sheets are melting faster than expected by IPCC, and accelerating

Hmm: Two independent satellite studies show that ice sheets are melting faster than expected by IPCC, and accelerating

1.  See this March 8, 2011 Washington Post article:

The vast ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting faster than previously thought, and that melting is accelerating, according to a new report that verifies 18 years of melting via two independent techniques.

Left unchecked, the extra water dumped into the oceans could push average global sea level 6 inches higher by 2050, the report finds. That would mark the ice sheets as the largest contributors to sea level rise, outstripping melting from Earth’s two other huge, frozen reservoirs, mountain glaciers and polar ice caps.

The new estimate of ice sheet melting – and the subsequent rise in sea level – outstrips more modest figures offered by the International Panel on Climate Change in 2007, the last time that international body published a comprehensive assessment of the ice sheets.

Combined, the two ice sheets dumped 475 gigatonnes of ice (which then melted) into the ocean each year. (A gigatonne is one billion metric tons.) Averaged over the 18 years of the study, the ice sheets lost a combined 36 gigatonnes more each year than they had the year before.

A 2006 study found that the melting of mountain glaciers and the polar ice caps was also accelerating, but at a rate about three times slower than that of the ice sheets

2.   See also this more detailed blog post at Things Break: Greenland and Antarctica ice sheet decay update.

3.  But does this mean rapid sea-level rises?  One can’t say for sure, regarding what hasn’t yet melted. But sea levels continue to rise, as confirmed at this skeptical “Watts’ Up With That?” post on May 4, 2011.

Categories: Uncategorized Tags:
  1. No comments yet.
  1. No trackbacks yet.