Study shows Antarctic ice melt accelerating

NEW YORK: New research published late last month suggests that the ice loss in Antarctica is accelerating, particularly in East Antarctica, the largest ice sheet.

The results indicate that "as a whole, Antarctica may soon be contributing significantly more to global sea level rise," write the US-based research team in the paper, which was published in the science journal Nature Geoscience.

By using satellite data, the researchers at University of Texas estimated a total ice sheet loss of 190 gigatons (1 gigaton equals to 1 cubic kilometers of water) a year in Antarctica from April 2002 to January 2009, with an error of 77 gigatons.