Study: Polar Ice Caps Melting Gets Faster

The polar ice has melted faster in the last 20 years than in the past 10,000. A comprehensive satellite study confirms that the melting ice caps are raising sea levels at an accelerating rate.

"The planet's refrigerator", "earth's weather kitchen", "barometer of the climate system" - the polar regions are known to be important drivers of the world's climate. When the "everlasting ice" melts at an increasing rate, the rest of the world is affected. Global sea levels are rising, dark meltwater pools absorb warmth from the sun which white ice would reflect back into space. Fresh water flows into the sea, changing ocean currents and the living conditions for marine organisms.



For 20 years satellites have been monitoring earth's biggest ice shields on Greenland and in the Antarctic, using different technologies from radar to gravity measurements. In the past, the uncoordinated publication of individual one-off measurements led to confusion, especially with regard to the state of the Antarctic ice. A new study, supported by NASA and European Space Agency ESA combines the data from different satellite missions.



"It's the first time all the people who have estimated changes in the size of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets using satellites over the past 20 years have got together to produce  a single result", Andrew Shepherd from the University of  Leeds in the UK explained in an interview with