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The mass balance of Antarctica

This page exists mostly to hold some links to various pages, reports, etc on the mass balance of Antarctica. By mass balance, I mean the difference between accumulation and ablation. By accumulation I mean primarily Precipitation minus Evaporation (P-E) (evaporation includes sublimation in this context) although there are additional surface losses from snowdrift and sublimation of lofted snow. By ablation I mean primarily calving of icebergs, but this term also includes loss by melting of the undersides of iceshelves.

Note that "surface mass balance" generally means the term that I have called accumulation above, sometimes this is shortened just to "mass balance" and this can be confusing. The surface mass balance is generally agreed to be about 150 mm/y (plus or minus up to 20%, though the degree of accuracy is, of course, unknown too; also, the value is not constant in time) (averaged over Antarctica, but with very wide variations from more than 1000 mm/year to less that 50 mm/year in the interior to some smaller areas with average net loss).

Antarctica: climate change and sea level

Antarctic Mass Balance and Sea Level Change (Charles R. Bentley)

igloo.gsfc.nasa.gov/wais/ (West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative)

World Data Center-A (WDC-A) for Glaciology (not directly relevant)

Reassessment of net surface mass balance in Antarctica (David G. Vaughan et al.)

Some of my publications are relevant to the surface mass balance

Climate info for Antarctica including mass balance pictures.

Past last modified: 13/8/2002