We use 3 years of Cryosat-2 radar altimeter data to develop the first comprehensive assessment of Antarctic ice sheet elevation change. This new data set provides near-continuous (96%) coverage of the entire continent, extending to within 215 km of the South Pole and leading to a fivefold increase in the sampling of coastal regions where the vast majority of all ice losses occur. Between 2010 and 2013, West Antarctica, East Antarctica, and the Antarctic Peninsula changed in mass by -134 +/- 27, -3 +/- 36, and -23 +/- 18 Gt/yr, respectively.
-- McMillan, et al, "
Increased ice losses from Antarctica detected by CryoSat-2", Geophysical Research Letters Volume 41, Issue 11, pages 3899-3905, 16 June 2014
The rate totals to 159 +/-48 Gt (gigatonnes) per year. There are 60*60*24*365 = 31536000 seconds per year. At the low end, the melt rate is 111,000,000,000 tonnes / 31,536,000 seconds = 3519 tonnes per second, and at the high end 207,000,000,000 / 31,536,000 = 6563 tonnes per second. My brain can't properly imagine 35 tonnes of ice melt every 0.01 seconds.
No comments:
Post a Comment