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Science 21 July 2000:
Vol. 289. no. 5478, pp. 428 - 430
DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5478.428
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Reports

Greenland Ice Sheet: High-Elevation Balance and Peripheral Thinning

W. Krabill,1* W. Abdalati,2 E. Frederick,3 S. Manizade,3 C. Martin,3 J. Sonntag,3 R. Swift,3 R. Thomas,3 W. Wright,1 J. Yungel3

Aircraft laser-altimeter surveys over northern Greenland in 1994 and 1999 have been coupled with previously reported data from southern Greenland to analyze the recent mass-balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Above 2000 meters elevation, the ice sheet is in balance on average but has some regions of local thickening or thinning. Thinning predominates at lower elevations, with rates exceeding 1 meter per year close to the coast. Interpolation of our results between flight lines indicates a net loss of about 51 cubic kilometers of ice per year from the entire ice sheet, sufficient to raise sea level by 0.13 millimeter per year--approximately 7% of the observed rise.

1 Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and
3 EG&G Services, Wallops Flight Facility, Building N-159, Wallops Island, VA 23337, USA.
2 Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Building 33, Room A225, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: krabill{at}osb1.wff.nasa.gov

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