Oregon State Study Supports New Melt Results For Greenland, Antarctica

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Oregon State University research findings about the Scandinavian Ice Sheet's behavior coincide with recent studies that show how the huge Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are changing.

A comprehensive survey by NASA scientists found there was a net loss from the combined polar ice sheets between 1992 and 2002. The survey's results, published last week in the Journal of Glaciology, documented a widespread thinning of Antarctica's West Antarctic ice shelves. In Greenland, the survey indicated an increase in snowfall in the interior of Greenland and thinning at the edges. The study suggests there was a slight gain in the total mass of Greenland ice during the decade studied, contrary to previous assessments. Survey researcher Jay Zwally of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said the situation may have changed there in the past three years.

A study in the Feb. 17 issue of Science reported that warmer temperatures in Greenland have led to its glaciers dumping twice as much ice into the ocean as 10 years ago, adding more to the rise in sea level than previously thought. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Kansas used data from Canadian and European satellites to make their assessment.

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