November 17, 2009
Graph of the Day for November 17, 2009
"Greenland Ice Cap Melting Faster Than Ever ... Satellite observations and a state-of-the art regional atmospheric model have independently confirmed that the Greenland ice sheet is losing mass at an accelerating rate, reports a new study in Science... The Greenland ice sheet contains enough water to cause a global sea level rise of seven metres."
ScienceDaily (Nov. 13, 2009).
Source: University of Illinois, Polar Research Group, Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences.
Hoven's Index for November 17, 2009
Area of Antarctic ice sheet: 5.4 million square miles.
Area of Greenland ice sheet: 0.656 million square miles.
Volume of Antarctic ice sheet: 7.2 million cubic miles.
Volume of Greenland ice sheet: 0.684 million cubic miles.
Percentage of all freshwater ice on earth contained in Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets: 99%.
National Snow and Ice Data Center. (Wikipedia used for volume of Greenland's ice sheet.)
Percentage of all freshwater ice on earth contained in the Antarctic ice sheet: 90.4%.
Percentage contained in the Greenland ice sheet: 8.6%.
Percentage contained in all other ice sheets and glaciers combined: 1%.
Source: Calculations by author, from data above.