Loss of ice accelerating in Antarctic, study says

WASHINGTON -- The Antarctic ice sheet is losing as much as 36 cubic miles of ice a year in a trend scientists link to global warming, according to a paper that provides the first evidence the sheet's total mass is shrinking significantly.

The findings, which are being published today in the journal Science, suggest the global sea level could rise substantially over the next several centuries.

It is one of a slew of scientific papers in recent weeks that have sought to gauge the impact of climate change. Last month two researchers reported that Greenland's glaciers are melting into the sea twice as fast as previously believed, and a separate paper in Science predicts that by the end of this century lakes and streams on one-fourth of the African continent could be drying up because of warmer temperatures.

The new Antarctic measurements, using data from two National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellites called the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, found that the amount of water pouring annually from the ice sheet into the ocean -- equivalent to the amount of water the United States uses in three months -- is causing the global sea level to rise by 0.4 millimeters a year. The continent holds 90 percent of the world's ice, and the disappearance of even its smaller West Antarctic ice sheet could raise worldwide sea levels by an estimated 20 feet.