Decadal mass balance of the antarctic ice sheet and its contribution to global sea level rise

We analyzed Antarctic ice sheet elevation change (dH/dt) from 1992-2002 using nearly 307 million elevation change measurements from ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellite radar altimeter data covering an area of about 8.5 million km². Ten-year elevation change time series were constructed for 1,500 local regions, 22 drainage basins, East and West Antarctica, and the continent as a whole (north of 81.6degS). Almost all basins in East Antarctica were found to have long-term dH/dt trends that fell within plusmn3 cm/yr. In West Antarctica the long-term dH/dt trends varied from -9 cm/yr to +22 cm/yr occur over basin scales. Despite these significant spatial variations, both the East and West Antarctic ice sheets, and the continent as a whole are very close to a state of overall mass balance. The average elevation change for the Antarctic continent from 1992-2002 was found to be 1.4plusmn0.2 cm/yr. Considering decadal accumulation variability, this translates to a net sink of fresh water of 42plusmn23 Gt/yr. The Antarctic continent´s decadal contribution to global sea level change is estimated to be -0.12plusmn0.07 mm/yr, which is very close to zero. The plusmn0.07 mm/yr error is a three-fold reduction in uncertainty compared to the most recent best estimate for the Antarctic ice sheet