EGU21-3103, updated on 03 Mar 2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-3103
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Trends in ice sheet mass balance

Andrew Shepherd1, Erik Ivins2, and the IMBIE Team*
Andrew Shepherd and Erik Ivins and the IMBIE Team
  • 1Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment, Leeds, United Kingdom of Great Britain – England, Scotland, Wales (a.shepherd@leeds.ac.uk)
  • 22NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
  • *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract

The Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-Comparison Exercise (IMBIE) is a community effort supported by ESA and NASA that aims to provide a consensus estimate of ice sheet mass balance. In its first phase, IMBIE showed that estimates of ice sheet mass balance derived from satellite gravimetry, altimetry and the mass budget method could be reconciled within their respective uncertainties. In its second phase, IMBIE showed that rates of ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland have increased by a factor 6 during the satellite era and are tracking the high-end (worst-case) projections reported in the IPCC’s fifth assessment report (AR5). The project now involves 96 individual participants based in 50 institutes from 13 nations and includes 26 satellite estimates of ice sheet mass balance, 11 models of glacial isostatic adjustment, and 10 models of surface mass balance. IMBIE has now begun its third phase, and the objectives are to (i) include measurements from new satellite missions, (ii) to report annual assessments, (iii) to partition changes in mass due to ice dynamics and surface mass balance, (iv) to produce regional assessments in areas of imbalance, and to (v) explore remaining biases between the various geodetic techniques involved. Participation is open to the full community, and the quality and consistency of submissions is regulated through a series of data standards and documentation requirements. This paper will introduce the objectives of IMBIE-3 and present the latest assessment of ice sheet mass balance. which has been updated for the IPCC's sixth assessment report.

IMBIE Team:

Andrew Shepherd, Erik Ivins, Eric Rignot, Ben Smith, Michiel van den Broeke, Isabella Velicogna, Pippa Whitehouse, Kate Briggs, Ian Joughin, Gerhard Krinner, Sophie Nowicki, Tony Payne, Ted Scambos, Nicole Schlegel, Geruo A, Cécile Agosta, Andreas Ahlstrøm, Greg Babonis, Valentina R. Barletta, Anders A. Bjørk, Alejandro Blazquez, Jennifer Bonin, William Colgan, Beata Csatho, Richard Cullather, Marcus E. Engdahl, Denis Felikson, Xavier Fettweis, Rene Forsberg, Anna E. Hogg, Hubert Gallee, Alex Gardner, Lin Gilbert, Noel Gourmelen, Andreas Groh, Brian Gunter, Edward Hanna, Christopher Harig, Veit Helm, Alexander Horvath, Martin Horwath, Shfaqat Khan, Kristian K. Kjeldsen, Hannes Konrad, Peter L. Langen, Benoit Lecavalier, Bryant Loomis, Scott Luthcke, Malcolm McMillan, Daniele Melini, Sebastian Mernild, Yara Mohajerani, Philip Moore, Ruth Mottram, Jeremie Mouginot, Gorka Moyano, Alan Muir, Thomas Nagler, Grace Nield, Johan Nilsson, Brice Noël, Ines Otosaka, Mark E. Pattle, W. Richard Peltier, Nadège Pie, Roelof Rietbroek, Helmut Rott, Louise Sandberg Sørensen, Ingo Sasgen, Himanshu Save, Bernd Scheuchl, Ernst Schrama, Ludwig Schröder, Ki-Weon Seo, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Thomas Slater, Giorgio Spada, Tyler Sutterley, Matthieu Talpe, Lev Tarasov, Willem Jan van de Berg, Wouter van der Wal, Melchior van Wessem, Bramha Dutt Vishwakarma, David Wiese, David Wilton, Thomas Wagner, Bert Wouters & Jan Wuite

How to cite: Shepherd, A. and Ivins, E. and the IMBIE Team: Trends in ice sheet mass balance, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-3103, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-3103, 2021.