While there still some holdouts against the existence of global warming, a new study provides compelling evidence that the Earth is indeed heating up.
The study, published in the journal Science, fixes inconsistencies in previous studies and gives alarming statistics about the melting of the Greenland and Anatarctic ice sheets, which are the two world's largest ice caps.
"It provides a simpler picture," said co-author Benjamin Smith, a research scientist at the UW's Applied Physics Laboratory. "In the 1990s, not very much was happening. Sometime around 1999, the ice sheets started losing more mass, and probably have been losing mass more rapidly over time since then."
The study takes a more long-term look at the melting of the ice caps, and gives researchers a more succinct set of data to draw from. Around 29 different studies have been published on the rate of ice loss since 1998, and many of them differ in their measurements.
"Establishing more consistent estimates for the contribution from ice sheets should reduce confusion, both among the scientific community and among the public," said study co-author Ian Joughin said. "It brought everyone together. It's comparing apples to apples."
The new study combines three different methods to calculating the rate of ice loss. One method involves using climate models and on-the-ground observations. The other two methods use satellites to calculate how much ice is present by measuring the gravitational pull and height of the ice sheets.
As the ice sheets melt, and sea levels rise worldwide, the study's data set can help coastal communities be better prepared in the event that the oceans begin to slowly climb up their shores.
Read the studies in Science here and here.
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