Mass loss and gains on the Antarctic ice sheet
The Antarctic Ice Sheet has been growing since 2020 – and scientists have now identified why. These images show how the net mass on the continent has accelerated. On the left, we see gravitational mass balance, with regions in the west and east seeing a net loss during the period 2003 to 2019. The image on the right shows increased net mass, shown by the darker blue areas, particularly in Eastern Antarctica from 2020 to 2024. They are derived directly from the ESA CCI AIS Gravimetric Mass Balance Gridded Product. The darkest blue areas on the images denote net gains of up to 60 Gigatonnes per year, while the darkest red areas saw a mass loss of more than 60 Gigatonnes in a year.
Gravitational mass balance (GMB) is a measurement of the change of mass in ice sheets. Ice sheet mass changes are caused by gains from snowfall as well as loss from melting ice. The net balance can be measured with satellite gravimetry, primarily from NASA and DLR’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. The mass change causes small changes in Earth's gravitational field.
The research was produced as part of the Processes for Ice Sheets in Climate models and Earth Observation project, which is funded by ESA’s Climate Change Initiative. The project’s findings were published in February in Nature Communications Earth & Environment journal.
Read full story: Why is Antarctica’s mass increasing?
