Mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet from 1992 to 2017

In 2018, we published an updated assessment of the mass balance of Antarctica. We found that between 1992 and 2017, the Antarctic Ice Sheet lost 2720 billion tonnes of ice, contributing 7.6 mm to global mean sea-level rise. This record of Antarctica mass changes shows that while prior to 2012, Antarctica lost ice at a steady rate of 76 billion tonnes per year, it is now losing ice faster than ever, with more than half of the total ice loss occurring between 2012 and 2017. This increase in ice loss from the continent as a whole is a combination of glacier speedup in West Antarctica and at the Antarctic Peninsula, and reduced growth of the ice sheet in East Antarctica.