By Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer / February 8, 2012 - Until now, satellite measurements from only selected places were used to extrapolate the overall ice loss outside Greenland and Antarctica. The melt-off from the world's ice sheets, ice caps and glaciers over eight years of the past decade would have been enough to cover the United States in about 18 inches (46 centimeters) of water, according to new research based on the most-comprehensive analysis of satellite data yet. Data, collected for the years 2003 through 2010, indicates that melting ice raised sea levels worldwide by an average of 1.48 millimeters (0.06 inches) each year. The loss of ice from Greenland and Antarctica has already been measured using satellite data, but the new analysis revealed that melting ice elsewhere accounted for about 0.41 mm (0.016 inches) of the annual rise. Until now, satellite measurements from only selected places were used to extrapolate the overall ice loss outside Greenland and Antarctica.


http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0208/NASA-satellites-reveal-colossal-ice-melt-greenhouse-gasses-blamed