Mass balance of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets from 1992 to 2020

Abstract. Ice losses from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have accelerated since the 1990s, accounting for a significant increase in the global mean sea level. Here, we present a new 29-year record of ice sheet mass balance from 1992 to 2020 from the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE). We compare and combine 50 independent estimates of ice sheet mass balance derived from satellite observations of temporal changes in ice sheet flow, in ice sheet volume, and in Earth's gravity field. Between 1992 and 2020, the ice sheets contributed 21.0±1.9 mm to global mean sea level, with the rate of mass loss rising from 105 Gt yr−1 between 1992 and 1996 to 372 Gt yr−1 between 2016 and 2020. In…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Awards: 80NM0018D0004, NNH20ZDA001N-CRYO
• AU
  Aarhus Universitet
• LU
  Lancaster University
• ES
  European Space Agency

  Award: EOEP-5 ‘EO Science for Society’
• UD
  Università di Bologna
• HA
  Helmholtz Association