NASA has reported that the Antarctic ice sheet is actually gaining more snow from the last 10,000 years. The amount of additional ice is significant enough to exceed the total portion of melted ice. The analysis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2013 says otherwise and concluded that the continent is losing a significant amount of Antarctic ice sheet.
"We're essentially in agreement with other studies that show an increase in ice discharge in the Antarctic Peninsula and the Thwaites and Pine Island region of West Antarctica," NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's glaciologist Jay Zwally said, according to NASA.
Zwally is the lead author of the study published in the Journal of Glaciology. His study shows that the Antarctic ice sheet gained 112 billion tons of ice each year starting from 1992 up until 2001. It gained less ice from 2003 to 2008 - only 82 billion tons.
"Our main disagreement is for East Antarctica and the interior of West Antarctica - there, we see an ice gain that exceeds the losses in the other areas." Zwally also said that his he and his research group have "measured small height changes over large areas, as well as the large changes observed over smaller areas."
Researchers have also found that the amount of melting ice has diminished for the first time in three years.
"After three record-high-extent years, this year marks a return towards normalcy for Antarctic sea ice," said Goddard's sea ice scientist, Walt Meier, according to ABC. "There may be more high years in the future because of the large year-to-year variation in Antarctic extent, but such extremes are not nearly as substantial as in the Arctic, where the declining trend towards a new normal is continuing."
Another study suggests that Totten Glacier, the biggest in East Antarctica, has been melting from below since warm water flows under it. The glacier's "grounding line" is now moving closer to the main land.
"This boundary is very important because that's where the ice detaches from the bed and becomes afloat and frictionless," says Xin Li, a researcher from the University of California, Irvine, according to the Washington Post.
