Radar altimetry confirms global warming is affecting polar glaciers

17 March 2006
Scientists have confirmed that climate warming is changing how much
water remains locked in the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets,
according to an article published in the Journal of Glaciology.

Using radar altimeter data from ESA's ERS-1 and ERS-2, Jay Zwally, a
scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and his colleagues
mapped the height of the ice sheets and found there was a net loss of
ice from the combined sheets between 1992 and 2002 and a corresponding
rise in sea level.

Polar ice plays a crucial role in regulating global climate because it
reflects about 80 percent of the incoming sunlight. If the ice caps
over the polar ocean melt, the ocean water would absorb a large part of
the radiation energy, which would lead to further melting of the ice
and further warming of the climate.

According to the NASA study, published in the March edition, 20 billion
net tonnes of water are added to oceans each year as a result of
Greenland's ice sheet gaining some 11 billion tonnes of water
annually, while Antarctica loses about 31 billion tonnes per year.

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The rest of this European Space Agency press release is at:
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMTQUNVGJE_planet_0.html