Annual Snowfall Over Antarctica, Overlain on the Antarctic Topography (IMAGE)

Ohio State University

Annual Snowfall Over Antarctica, Overlain on the Antarctic Topography

Caption

The larger East Antarctic ice sheet stores about 60 meters of global sea level as ice, while the West Antarctic ice sheet stores about 6 meters of global sea level. Snowfall causes the ice sheets to grow and balances the loss of ice due to melting and iceberg discharge at the continental margins. Snowfall is more variable over the smaller, potentially less-stable West Antarctic ice sheet, where satellites have measured a net loss of ice over the past decade. The year-to-year snowfall variability currently overwhelms the measured ice loss, making it difficult to determine the cause.

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Ohio State University

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