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Antarctic Ice Sheet

ANTARCTICA MASS VARIATION SINCE 2002

Data source: Ice mass measurement by NASA's GRACE satellites. Gap represents time between missions.
Credit: NASA
Rate of Change
136
billion metric tons per year since 2002

Data from NASA's GRACE and GRACE Follow-On satellites show that the land ice sheets in both Antarctica and Greenland have been losing mass since 2002.

The GRACE mission ended in June 2017. The GRACE Follow-On mission began collecting data in June 2018 and is continuing to monitor both ice sheets. This record includes new data-processing methods and is continually updated as more numbers come in, with a delay of up to two months.

Note: You now need to create an Earthdata account to access NASA's ice sheet data. Register here for free. Once logged in, click "HTTP" under the charts on this page to access the data.

The amount of ice being lost is staggering and continues to accelerate. For example, Greenland alone is losing around 270 billion metric tons of ice per year, while Antarctica is shedding approximately 150 billion metric tons annually. To put this in perspective, each metric ton is equivalent to about 1,000 liters of water. The combined annual ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica is enough to raise global sea levels by nearly 1.2 millimeters each year. Over the past few decades, the cumulative effect has contributed significantly to the more than 20 centimeters of global sea level rise observed since 1900. These seemingly small increments add up over time, posing serious threats to low-lying areas and island nations, and emphasizing the urgent need to better understand and mitigate these changes.

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