Tuesday, February 28, 2012

NASA: Earth Is Losing Half A Trillion Tons Of Ice A Year

 

NASA: Earth Is Losing Half A Trillion Tons Of Ice A Year

Global Ice Loss from 2003-2010 Could “Cover the Entire United States in One and Half Feet of Water”


Changes in ice thickness (in centimeters per year) during 2003-2010 as measured by NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, averaged over each of the world’s ice caps and glacier systems outside of Greenland and Antarctica. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Colorado. [See figure of Greenland and Antarctica ice loss below.]
This piece was reposted from the NASA website
In the first comprehensive satellite study of its kind, a University of Colorado at Boulder-led team used NASA data to calculate how much Earth’s melting land ice is adding to global sea level rise.
Using satellite measurements from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), the researchers measured ice loss in all of Earth’s land ice between 2003 and 2010, with particular emphasis on glaciers and ice caps outside of Greenland and Antarctica.
The total global ice mass lost from Greenland, Antarctica and Earth’s glaciers and ice caps during the study period was about 4.3 trillion tons (1,000 cubic miles), adding about 0.5 inches (12 millimeters) to global sea level. That’s enough ice to cover the United States 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) deep.

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NASA: Earth Is Losing Half A Trillion Tons Of Ice A Year

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