Posted on 11/19/2006 3:51:00 PM PST by ChildOfThe60s
Mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet.
Wingham, D.J., Shepherd, A., Muir, A. and Marshall, G.J.
What was done The authors "analyzed 1.2 x 108 European remote sensing satellite altimeter echoes to determine the changes in volume of the Antarctic ice sheet from 1992 to 2003." This survey, in their words, "covers 85% of the East Antarctic ice sheet and 51% of the West Antarctic ice sheet," which together comprise "72% of the grounded ice sheet.""
What was learned Wingham et al. report that "overall, the data, corrected for isostatic rebound, show the ice sheet growing at 5 ± 1 mm year-1." To calculate the ice sheet's change in mass, however, "requires knowledge of the density at which the volume changes have occurred," and when the researchers' best estimates of regional differences in this parameter are used, they find that "72% of the Antarctic ice sheet is gaining 27 ± 29 Gt year-1, a sink of ocean mass sufficient to lower [authors' italics] global sea levels by 0.08 mm year-1." This net extraction of water from the global ocean, according to Wingham et al., occurs because "mass gains from accumulating snow, particularly on the Antarctic Peninsula and within East Antarctica, exceed the ice dynamic mass loss from West Antarctica."
What it means Contrary to all the horror stories one hears about global warming-induced mass wastage of the Antarctic ice sheet leading to rising sea levels that gobble up coastal lowlands worldwide, the most recent decade of pertinent real-world data suggest that forces leading to just the opposite effect are apparently prevailing, even in the face of what climate alarmists typically describe as the greatest warming of the world in the past two millennia or more.
Dang ... He's really bloated. keep him away from sharp objects. If you stick a pin in him, he'll pop like a balloon.
The biggest threat to humanity today is Global-Absolutely-No-Change-In-Temperatures-Whatsoever.
Everybody knows "W" did it to fool us into thnking we're dooooomed to freeze to death while we're really going to bake...or is it bake while we think we're going to freeze...Oh, I'm so confused...
Bush's fault.
Is this a real picture or photoshopped?
a real picture !
Yikes ...
Nice suit...al is wearing.
/s
Can you imagine all that shlt spraying out? Not pleasant.
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