Gravity Data Show Extent of Antarctic Ice Loss

By on May 11, 2015


Using gravity data collected by satellites over the past decade, researchers at Princeton University have been able to show the extent of Antarctic ice melt, according to a release. Their investigation zeroed in on a period between 2003 and 2014.

During that time, scientists found that the continent’s western ice sheet lost twice what was lost in the east. Through analyzing the gravitational data to indirectly weigh the amount of ice lost, the researchers found that 92 billion tons of ice per year were lost over the period.

Scientists say that West Antarctica, the continent’s smaller region, has also seen an acceleration in ice loss since 2008. From that time up to 2014, unstable glaciers there experienced double the ice losses of Antarctica’s eastern half, an amount more than 200 billion tons.

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