A new study led by NASA's glaciologists Jay Zwally, says that an increase in Antarctic snow accumulation that began 10 000 years ago is currently adding enough ice to the continent to outweigh the increased losses from its thinning glaciers. The research challenges the conclusions of other studies, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 2013 report, which says that Antarctica is overall losing land ice.
While Zwally confirms the new study is essentially in agreement with other studies that show an increase in ice discharge in the Antarctic Peninsula and the Thwaites and Pine Island region of West Antarctica, he points out that their main disagreement is for East Antarctica and the interior of West Antarctica. "There, we see an ice gain that exceeds the losses in the other areas,” Zwally said and added that his team “measured small height changes over large areas, as well as the large changes observed over smaller areas.”
