»Seit 2002 hat der grönländische Eisschild etwa 4700 Gigatonnen verloren. Genug, um die USA mit einem halben Meter Wasser zu bedecken«

This data shows that most of the loss of ice occurs along the edge of the ice sheet, where independent observations also indicate that the ice is thinning, that the glacier fronts are retreating in fjords and on land, and that there is a greater degree of melting from the surface of the ice.

High on the central region of the ice sheet, however, the GRACE satellites show that there is a small increase in the mass of the ice. Other measurements suggest that this is due to a small increase in precipitation/snowfall.

All changes are given relative to April 2002.

Based on this data, it can be seen that during the period 2003-2011 the Greenland Ice Sheet has lost 234 km³ of water per year, corresponding to an annual contribution to the mean increase in sea level of 0.65 mm

Die vollständige Studie finden Sie hier.