Greenland ice losses rising faster than expected

Greenland is losing ice seven times faster than in the 1990s, shows a new study by an international research team including Durham University. The rate of ice loss is in line with the more pessimistic climate warming scenario by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which would see 40 million more people exposed to coastal flooding by 2100. Our researchers are part of an 89-strong team of polar scientists from across the world who have produced the most complete picture of Greenland ice loss to date. 8 trillion tonnes of ice since 1992 - enough to push global sea levels up by 10.6 millimetres. The rate of ice loss has risen from 33 billion tonnes per year in the 1990s to 254 billion tonnes per year in the last decade - a seven-fold increase within three decades. The research team combined 26 separate surveys to compute changes in the mass of Greenland's ice sheet between 1992 and 2018. Altogether, data from 11 different satellite missions were used, including measurements of the ice sheet's changing volume, flow and gravity.