Thickening of the western part of the Greenland ice sheet

NASA's Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment (PARCA) includes measurements of ice velocity and ice thickness along the 2000 m clevation contour line in the western part of the ice sheet. Here we use these measurements together with published estimates of snow-accumulation rates to infer the mass balance, or rate of thickening/thinning, of the ice-sheet catchment area inland fi om the velocity traverse. Within the accuracy to which we know snow-accumulation rates, the entire area is in balance, but localized regions inland from Upernavik Isstrom and Jakobshavn Isbrae both appear to be thickening by about 10 cm a(-1).