Study finds 12.5 trillion tons of polar ice lost
An international team assembled the longest satellite record of ice-sheet mass balance, extending Greenland data to 1972 and Antarctica to 1979 and combining 42 satellite surveys from 27 missions through 2023. The record estimates 12.5 trillion tons (11.3 trillion tonnes) of ice lost since the 1970s, with most loss from Greenland, producing about three centimetres of global sea level rise and increasing coastal flood and erosion risk for six to nine million people. The data show accelerating losses since the 1990s, with 84 percent of loss from faster glacier discharge driven by a warming ocean.
Polar ice loss raised global sea level by three centimetres.
Context
Scientists built a longer satellite record that reaches back to the 1970s. The record shows faster ice loss since the 1990s and links it mainly to ocean warming. Continued loss would raise sea levels further and increase coastal flood risk.
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