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. Radar altimeter measurements show that the Greenland Ice Sheet is thickening at a rate of 6.4 cm (2.6 inches) a year above altitudes of 1,500 meters (5000 feet). Below that altitude, the elevation-change rate is minus 2.0 cm per year in the ice-sheet margins. The trend below 1500 meters however does not include the steeply-sloping marginal areas where current altimeter data are unusable. The spatially averaged increase is 5.4 cm per year over the study area. The team, led by Professor Ola M. Johannessen of NERSC, ascribe this interior growth of the ice sheet to increased snowfall. The Greenland Ice Sheet has an area of 708,072 square miles (1,833,900 sq km) and an average thickness of 1.43 miles (2.3 km).
(Research
published by Science Magazine in November, 2005.) |
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