ANTARCTIC ice sheet 2009-2019: is it really DECREASING? A peer reviewed study
… Antarctic ice shelves provide buttressing support to the ice sheet
… stabilising the flow of grounded ice and its contribution to global sea levels
… satellite observations have shown ice shelves collapse, thin, and retreat
… there are few measurements of the Antarctic-wide change in ice shelf area
… Here, we use MODIS satellite data to measure the change
… on 34 ice shelves in Antarctica from 2009 to 2019
… a reduction in the area on the Antarctic Peninsula (6693 km2) and West Antarctica (5563 km2)
… has been outweighed by area growth in East Antarctica (3532 km2) and the large Ross and Ronne–Filchner ice shelves (14 028 km2)
… Overall, the Antarctic ice shelf area has grown by 5305 km2 since 2009
… 18 ice shelves retreating and 16 larger shelves growing in area
… Our observations show that Antarctic ice shelves gained 661 Gt of ice mass over the past decade
