3.04.2006
Antarctica Losing Ice to Oceans (news.BBC.co.uk)
Thursday, 2 March 2006, 20:02 GMT
By Richard Black
Environment Correspondent, BBC News website
A new space-based study of Antarctica shows its ice sheet is shrinking.
Researchers used satellites to plot changes in the Earth's gravity in the Antarctic during the period 2002-2005.
Writing in the journal Science, they conclude that the continent is losing 152 cubic km of ice each year, with most loss in the west.
In recent years scientists have found other evidence that West Antarctic ice is melting, which could contribute to sea level rise.
In his contribution to a recent report on climate change, the director of the British Antarctic Survey, Chris Rapley, described the West Antarctic ice sheet as "a giant awakened".
But gathering comprehensive data on both the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets has not been straightforward, and studies have produced apparently contradictory results, with some indicating a loss of ice and others that sheets are thickening.
(More ... BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Antarctica losing ice to oceans) ¶ 10:33
By Richard Black
Environment Correspondent, BBC News website
A new space-based study of Antarctica shows its ice sheet is shrinking.
Researchers used satellites to plot changes in the Earth's gravity in the Antarctic during the period 2002-2005.
Writing in the journal Science, they conclude that the continent is losing 152 cubic km of ice each year, with most loss in the west.
In recent years scientists have found other evidence that West Antarctic ice is melting, which could contribute to sea level rise.
In his contribution to a recent report on climate change, the director of the British Antarctic Survey, Chris Rapley, described the West Antarctic ice sheet as "a giant awakened".
But gathering comprehensive data on both the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets has not been straightforward, and studies have produced apparently contradictory results, with some indicating a loss of ice and others that sheets are thickening.
(More ... BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Antarctica losing ice to oceans) ¶ 10:33
