Antarctica: mass balance
-134 ± 11 Gt/yr
2002-04 → 2026-07, ± 2 σ; that is 0.37 mm/yr of sea-level rise
GravIS mass anomalies from GRACE and GRACE-FO: ice sheets and river-basin water storage (GFZ, COST-G) · CC BY 4.0 (GFZ Data Services); cite the data DOIs and Dahle et al. (2025) · 10/25/26
Current
Greenland: mass balance
-220 ± 13 Gt/yr
2002-04 → 2026-07, ± 2 σ; that is 0.61 mm/yr of sea-level rise
GravIS mass anomalies from GRACE and GRACE-FO: ice sheets and river-basin water storage (GFZ, COST-G) · CC BY 4.0 (GFZ Data Services); cite the data DOIs and Dahle et al. (2025) · 10/25/26
Current
Contribution to sea level
23.7 mm
mm since 2002, both ice sheets together (8,576 Gt of ice lost)
Acceleration, Antarctica (Gt/yr²)
1.8 ± 3.8
Greenland: 5.4 ± 4.5 Gt/yr². Positive: the loss slows; negative: it speeds up. Significant when the value exceeds its uncertainty (2 σ).
Mass of the polar ice sheets (anomaly, Gt)
GravIS mass anomalies from GRACE and GRACE-FO: ice sheets and river-basin water storage (GFZ, COST-G) · CC BY 4.0 (GFZ Data Services); cite the data DOIs and Dahle et al. (2025) · 10/25/26
Current
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Ice sheet balance: trend and acceleration
| Ice sheet | Mean balance (Gt/yr, ± 2 σ) | Start → end (Gt/yr) | Acceleration (Gt/yr², ± 2 σ) | Cumulative loss, as sea level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antarctica | -134 ± 11 | -156 → -112 | 1.8 ± 3.8 | -3,252 Gt · 9.0 mm |
| Greenland | -220 ± 13 | -285 → -154 | 5.4 ± 4.5 | -5,324 Gt · 14.7 mm |
Water stored on the continents (anomaly, cm of water)
GravIS mass anomalies from GRACE and GRACE-FO: ice sheets and river-basin water storage (GFZ, COST-G) · CC BY 4.0 (GFZ Data Services); cite the data DOIs and Dahle et al. (2025) · 10/25/26
Current
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Large basins: water storage trend
Linear trend of the water storage anomaly, annual and semi-annual cycles removed, in cm of water per year (± 2 σ, autocorrelation accounted for). Red: the basin loses water; blue: it gains. A trend over some twenty years mixes human effects (pumping, dams) and natural variability (droughts, ENSO).
| Basin | Trend (cm/yr, ± 2 σ) | Latest value (cm) | Minimum (year) | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indus | -1.33 ± 0.18 | -23.1 (2026-07) | -28.1 (2025) | Groundwater depletion in Punjab and Haryana (Rodell et al., 2018). |
| Ganges | -1.19 ± 0.26 | -14.1 (2026-07) | -34.2 (2024) | Groundwater pumping for irrigation in northern India, partly offset by the monsoon (Rodell et al., 2018). |
| Tigris and Euphrates | -0.77 ± 0.36 | -7.9 (2026-07) | -26.3 (2025) | Decline attributed to groundwater pumping and droughts (Rodell et al., 2018). |
| Danube | -0.72 ± 0.22 | -21.6 (2026-07) | -25.7 (2025) | Droughts of 2003, 2015 and 2018–2022 in central Europe. |
| Colorado | -0.38 ± 0.16 | -10.2 (2026-07) | -12.0 (2022) | Persistent drought of the American Southwest, falling Lake Mead and Lake Powell. |
| All land | -0.17 ± 0.02 | -3.1 (2026-07) | -5.7 (2023) | Mean over land excluding Antarctica and Greenland; dominated by the large tropical basins and ENSO. |
| Zambezi | -0.11 ± 0.68 (not significant) | -2.7 (2026-07) | -26.6 (2005) | Kariba and Cahora Bassa reservoirs; 2024 drought linked to El Niño. |
| Amazon | +0.01 ± 0.44 (not significant) | 4.0 (2026-07) | -35.1 (2024) | Largest seasonal signal on Earth; droughts of 2005, 2010, 2015–2016 and 2023–2024. |
| Mississippi | +0.04 ± 0.36 (not significant) | -5.9 (2026-07) | -13.2 (2012) | Floods (2011, 2019) alternating with droughts (2012, 2022–2023). |
| Yangtze | +0.24 ± 0.12 | 8.1 (2026-07) | -7.0 (2003) | Filling of the Three Gorges Dam (2003–2010), then climate variations; 2022 drought. |
| Murray (Australia) | +0.28 ± 0.26 | 6.7 (2026-07) | -10.1 (2019) | End of the Millennium Drought with the 2010–2011 La Niña, then 2019 and 2022. |
| Congo | +0.59 ± 0.28 | 4.5 (2026-07) | -12.6 (2006) | Slow variations, linked to the basin’s rains and Lake Tanganyika. |
| Nile | +0.83 ± 0.22 | 12.1 (2026-07) | -9.0 (2005) | Rise attributed to more rain over the upper basin and the filling of lakes and reservoirs. |
Four stressed basins (anomaly, cm of water)
GravIS mass anomalies from GRACE and GRACE-FO: ice sheets and river-basin water storage (GFZ, COST-G) · CC BY 4.0 (GFZ Data Services); cite the data DOIs and Dahle et al. (2025) · 10/25/26
Current
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Method and sources
Measurement. The twin GRACE satellites (2002–2017) then GRACE-FO (since 2018) measure each month the variations of the Earth’s gravity field, from which a mass change at the surface (ice, water) is deduced. Level-3 products of the GravIS portal (GFZ, with AWI and TU Dresden), COST-G combined solution: ice sheets in gigatonnes, corrected for glacial isostatic adjustment; basins in centimetres of water, with their uncertainty.
Trends. Least squares on the monthly series: ice sheets, quadratic trend (rate at the centre of the period, acceleration, rates at start and end) plus annual and semi-annual cycles; basins, linear trend plus the same cycles. Standard errors corrected for the autocorrelation of the residuals (factor √((1+φ)/(1−φ))), quoted at 2 σ. Sea-level equivalent: 362 Gt of ice per mm.
Reading these data
The resolution of GRACE is a few hundred kilometres: small basins and coasts are blurred, and the mass of a basin can leak into its neighbours. The correction for isostatic adjustment (land still rising since the last glaciation) is the main uncertainty for Antarctica. Total storage does not separate groundwater from soils or lakes: attributing a decline to pumping needs other data. Twenty years of measurements remain short to separate a trend from a drought cycle.
SOURCES OF THIS PAGE
- Dahle et al. (2025)
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Dahle, C., Boergens, E., Sasgen, I., Döhne, T., Reißland, S., et al. (2025). GravIS: mass anomaly products from satellite gravimetry. Earth System Science Data, 17, 611–631.
· doi:10.5194/essd-17-611-2025
Licence : Published literature; cited - Tapley et al. (2019)
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Tapley, B. D., Watkins, M. M., Flechtner, F., Reigber, C., Bettadpur, S., et al. (2019). Contributions of GRACE to understanding climate change. Nature Climate Change, 9, 358–369.
· doi:10.1038/s41558-019-0456-2
Licence : Published literature; cited - Rodell et al. (2018)
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Rodell, M., Famiglietti, J. S., Wiese, D. N., Reager, J. T., Beaudoing, H. K., et al. (2018). Emerging trends in global freshwater availability. Nature, 557, 651–659.
· doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0123-1
Licence : Published literature; cited - Otosaka et al. (2023)
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Otosaka, I. N., Shepherd, A., Ivins, E. R., Schlegel, N.-J., Amory, C., et al. (2023). Mass balance of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets from 1992 to 2020. Earth System Science Data, 15, 1597–1616.
· doi:10.5194/essd-15-1597-2023
Licence : Published literature; cited - GravIS mass anomalies from GRACE and GRACE-FO: ice sheets and river-basin water storage (GFZ, COST-G)
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Sasgen, I., Döhne, T., Boergens, E., Horwath, M. (2026): COST-G GravIS RL02 Ice-Mass Change Products, V. 0001, GFZ Data Services, doi:10.5880/COST-G.GRAVIS_02_L3_ICE. Boergens, E., Dobslaw, H., Dill, R. (2025): COST-G GravIS RL02 Terrestrial Water Storage Anomalies, V. 0001, GFZ Data Services, doi:10.5880/COST-G.GRAVIS_02_L3_TWS. Dahle, C., et al. (2025): GravIS: mass anomaly products from satellite gravimetry, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 611–631.
· doi:10.5194/essd-17-611-2025 · source page ↗
Licence : CC BY 4.0 (GFZ Data Services); cite the data DOIs and Dahle et al. (2025) · retrieved on Oct 25, 2026 · SHA-256 59c02eaae985…