This result of the ERS (European Remote Sensing) satellites that Antarctica is not shrinking was reported on October 16th, 1998 by an international team of scientists in the leading American magazine Science. But the same investigation also provided evidence that one part of West Antarctica may be rapidly losing its ice to the ocean.
The team of British, Dutch and American scientists, led by Professor Duncan Wingham at
University College London, based their findings on ERS data collected over the last five years.
The data revealed that most of the ice stored in Antarctica is very stable. The icy continent now looks an unlikely source of rising global sea level this century, making thermal expansion of the ocean due to global warming, and the shrinking of mountain glaciers, more likely causes.
Prof. Wingham's team used ERS's radar altimeter instruments to determine if the thickness of the Antarctic Ice Sheet changed over the five-year period from 1992 to 1996. Transmitting over 4,000,000 radar puls

10:00:00:00 ESA conditions of use
10:00:09:00 Embargo restriction
10:00:16:00 Opener
10:00:52:00 Menu Caption
10:01:43:00 Graphics Caption
10:01:07:00 Digital Elevation model of Antarctica. ( copyright- remains with Planetary Visions: use restricted to ERS results '98 )
10:01:22:00 Graphic animation; flight over Antarctic surface
10:01:35:00 Animations of the ERS satellite from space
10:01:47:00 Animations of the ERS radar instrument (the Radar Altimeter) used for surface height detection
10:02:23:00 European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS) caption
10:02:27:00 Launch of ERS 1; Kourou, French Guiana July 1991
10:02:48:00 Examination of ERS 1 satellite in clean room conditions
10:03:03:00 close shot of Radar Altimeter dish
10:03:15:00 Engineers working in clean room
10:03:24:00 University College London; Mullard Space Science Laboratory-caption
10:03:29:00 Exterior of building
10:03:43:00 Interior of lab. Professor Duncan Wingham loads an ERS Radar Altimeter data tape into a reader, to begin down