State of balance of the cryosphere

Abstract

The current state of balance of the terrestrial ice sheets and glaciers is poorly known. What little data are available suggest that, worldwide, mountain glaciers have receded since about the mid-nineteenth century, with occasional interruptions of the retreat. The interior part of the Greenland ice sheet appears to be thickening or in near equilibrium, but this ice sheet may be thinning in the coastal areas. Estimates of the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet suggest that it is positive, although the error limits allow for a slightly negative balance. There is an urgent need to greatly improve the current estimates and to monitor the ice sheets continuously for changes in volume and extent. A program based on satellite observation techniques, in cooperation with ground-based surveys repeated over long time periods (many years or decades), appears to be most opportune to achieve this.