Seven worst years for polar ice sheet melting occurred in past decade: study

Seven worst years for polar ice sheets melting and losing ice have occurred during the past decade, with 2019 being the worst year on record.

Scientists report that the seven worst years for polar ice sheets melting and losing ice have occurred during the past decade, with 2019 being the worst year on record.

Combining 50 satellite surveys of Antarctica and Greenland taken between 1992 and 2020, the international team of researchers have found that the melting ice sheets now account for a quarter of all sea level rise, a fivefold increase since the 1990s.

The findings of the team, led by the Northumbria University’s Centre for Polar Observations and Modelling, U.K., were published in the journal, Earth System Science Data.

In their study, the researchers found that earth’s polar ice sheets lost 7,560 billion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2020, which is equivalent to an ice cube that would be 20 km in height.

They also found that the polar ice sheets have together lost ice in every year of the satellite record, and the seven highest melting years have occurred in the past decade.

The satellite records showed that 2019 was the record melting year when the ice sheets lost a staggering 612 billion tonnes of ice.

They said that the loss, driven by an Arctic summer heatwave, led to record melting from Greenland peaking at 444 billion tonnes that year.