Antarctica Ice Sheets Experiencing Net Gains, New NASA Study Finds

Antarctica may not be losing ice as fast as previously though, and by stark contrast may actually be gaining ice.

Published in the Journal of Glaciology, the new study from NASA determined Antarctica's ice sheets have been experiencing net gains since 1992. From 1992 to 2001, the annual net gain was 112 billion tons, and from 2003 to 2008, the annual net gain was 82 billion tons.

According to UPI.com, the new study does not have to disprove previous reports, primarily from the U.N.-appointed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but brings to light previously unreported evidence.

"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," study lead author Jay Zwally, a glaciologist with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a press release. "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.

"[The researchers] measured small height changes over large areas, as well as the large changes observed over smaller areas."

NASA reported about a year ago that Antarctica's sea ice extent hit a record high, but that finding was mired in complexity as well.

"The planet as a whole is doing what was expected in terms of warming," Claire Parkinson, a senior scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said at the time. "Sea ice as a whole is decreasing as expected, but just like with global warming, not every location with sea ice will have a downward trend in ice extent."

The new study could alter environmentalists' projections of future sea level rise, but it may also cause scientists to search elsewhere for the source of sea level rise.

"The good news is that Antarctica is not currently contributing to sea level rise, but is taking 0.23 millimeters per year away," Zwally said. "But this is also bad news. If the 0.27 millimeters per year of sea level rise attributed to Antarctica in the IPCC report is not really coming from Antarctica, there must be some other contribution to sea level rise that is not accounted for."