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Annual snowfall over Antarctica,
overlain on the Antarctic topography. 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. |
