Scientists warn West Antarctica’s ice has thinned by ‘extraordinary amounts’ as study on 25 years of satellite data reveals glacier thickness has dropped 400 FEET in some areas
- Study on 25 years of satellite data found that 24% of West Antarctica is unstable
- Researchers say largest glaciers are losing rate five times faster than in the past
- Ice shed from the glaciers is already contributing to sea level rise, team warns
Nearly a quarter of West Antarctica’s ice is now considered unstable after unprecedented thinning across its largest glaciers over the last two decades.
Scientists analyzing more than 800 million measurements collected by an array of satellites since 1992 have found the Pine Island and Thwaite’s Glaciers are now losing ice at a rate five times faster than they were when the survey began.
In areas hit hardest, researchers found the ice has thinned by as much as 122 meters (400 feet), causing the affected glaciers to become unstable.
The findings add to the ongoing concern over sea level rise resulting from glacier loss and the implications it has for coastal cities.
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Researchers used 25 years of satellite data along with climate models to determine how snowfall and climate change are affecting ice loss. Changes due to the glacier dynamics alone are outlined in green
The alarming new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters found that thinning has now spread to 24 percent of West Antarctica, including the majority of its largest ice streams.
These areas are losing more mass through melting and ice calving events than they’re gaining through snowfall, the researchers say.
‘In parts of Antarctica the ice sheet has thinned by extraordinary amounts, and so we set out to show how much was due to changes in climate and how much was due to weather,’ said lead author Andy Shepherd.
The team used ice sheet heights recorded by the ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat, and CryoSat-2 satellite altimeter missions between 1992 and 2017, along with snowfall simulations from the RACMO regional climate model.
This allowed them to differentiate between changes linked to short-lived weather patterns and those stemming from longer-term phenomena, such as increasing ocean temperature.
Nearly a quarter of West Antarctica’s ice is now considered unstable after unprecedented thinning across its largest glaciers over the last two decades. The findings add to the ongoing concern over sea level rise resulting from glacier loss, and the implications for coastal cities
While fluctuations in snowfall did give rise to small changes in height over some areas, the effects only lasted for a few years at a time.
Dramatic changes in ice thickness, on the other hand, highlight worsening instability over decades.
The team estimates 24 percent of West Antarctica is now unstable.
‘Knowing how much snow has fallen has really helped us to detect the underlying change in glacier ice within the satellite record,’ Shepherd said.
‘We can see clearly now that a wave of thinning has spread rapidly across some of Antarctica’s most vulnerable glaciers, and their losses are driving up sea levels around the planet.
‘Altogether, ice losses from East and West Antarctica have contributed 4.6 mm to global sea level rise since 1992.’
Scientists analyzing more than 800 million measurements collected by an array of satellites since 1992 have found the Pine Island and Thwaite’s Glaciers are now losing ice at a rate five times faster than they were when the survey began
The research relied on 25 years of measurements from ESA satellites, which the team says is critical in understanding these long-term patterns.
‘This is an important demonstration of how satellite missions can help us to understand how our planet is changing,’ says co-author Dr Marcus Engdahl of the European Space Agency.
‘The polar regions are hostile environments and are extremely difficult to access from the ground. Because of this, the view from space is an essential tool for tracking the effects of climate change.’
THE RETREAT OF THE THWAITES GLACIER
The Thwaites glacier is slightly smaller than the total size of the UK, approximately the same size as the state of Washington, and is located in the Amundsen Sea.
It is up to 4,000 metres (13,100 feet thick) and is considered a key in making projections of global sea level rise.
The glacier is retreating in the face of the warming ocean and is thought to be unstable because its interior lies more than two kilometres (1.2 miles) below sea level while, at the coast, the bottom of the glacier is quite shallow.
The Thwaites glacier is the size of Florida and is located in the Amundsen Sea. It is up to 4,000 meters thick and is considered a key in making projections of global sea level rise
The Thwaites glacier has experienced significant flow acceleration since the 1970s.
From 1992 to 2011, the centre of the Thwaites grounding line retreated by nearly 14 kilometres (nine miles).
Annual ice discharge from this region as a whole has increased 77 percent since 1973.
Because its interior connects to the vast portion of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that lies deeply below sea level, the glacier is considered a gateway to the majority of West Antarctica’s potential sea level contribution.
The collapse of the Thwaites Glacier would cause an increase of global sea level of between one and two metres (three and six feet), with the potential for more than twice that from the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
