In a major collaborative effort, scientists from around the world have used information from satellites to reveal that ice melting in Antarctica has not only raised sea levels by 7.6 mm since 1992, but, critically, almost half of this rise has occurred in the last five years.

During recent storms, satellites recorded ocean waves averaging nearly 20 metres high – the largest ever measured from space. Moreover, satellite data now reveal that ocean swells act as storm ‘messengers’: even though a storm may never make landfall, its swell can travel vast distances and bring destructive energy to distant coastlines.

Hidden beneath the biggest ice mass on Earth, hundreds of subglacial lakes form a crucial part of Antarctica’s icy structure, affecting the movement and stability of glaciers, and consequentially influencing global sea level rise.Thanks to a decade of data from the European Space Agency’s CryoSat satellite, researchers have identified 85 previously unknown lakes several kilometres under the frozen surface surrounding the South Pole. This increases the number of known active subglacial lakes below Antarctica by more than half to 231.

Using data from several Earth-observing satellites, including ESA’s CryoSat and the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions, scientists have discovered that a huge flood beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet surged upwards with such force that it fractured the ice sheet, resulting in a vast quantity of meltwater bursting through the ice surface.

Sea-level detail from CryoSat

Sea level anomalies

Wave height

Arctic sea-ice thickness

Achievements during 2010

CryoSat-2, ESA's Ice Mission

CryoSat-2 the ground truth

CryoSat-2, ESA's Ice Mission