Scientists have looked at glaciers which behave independently from the ice sheet, despite having some physical connection to it, and those which are not connected at all to help them improve the predictions of the future contribution of Greenland’s ice to sea-level rise.
Using lasers which measure the height of the ice from space, and a recently completed inventory of Greenland’s glaciers and ice caps, scientists from the European-funded ice2sea programme, were able to determine changes in the mass of those ice bodies, separate from the main ice sheet.
It also showed that the contribution to sea-level rise from the glaciers of Greenland separated from the ice sheet makes up around 10% of the estimated contribution of the entire world’s glaciers and ice caps, and that contribution is higher than expected.