A new synthesis of annual land ice mass trends 1992 to 2016

We have assessed and synthesised land ice mass trend results published, primarily, since the IPCC AR5 (2013) to produce a consistent estimate of land ice mass trends during the satellite era (1992 to 2016). Our resulting synthesis is both consistent and rigorous, drawing on i) the published literature, ii) expert assessment of that literature, and iii) a new analysis of Arctic glacier and ice cap trends combined with statistical modelling.
In the associated paper (Bamber et al 2018) we present annual and pentad (five-year mean) time series for the East, West Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets and glaciers separately and combined. When averaged over pentads, covering the entire period considered, we obtain a monotonic trend in mass contribution to the oceans, increasing from 0.31±0.35 mm of sea level equivalent for 1992-1996 to 1.85±0.13 for 2012-2016. Our integrated land ice trend is lower than many estimates of GRACE-derived ocean mass change for the same periods. This is due, in part, to a smaller estimate for glacier and ice cap mass trends compared to previous assessments. We discuss this, and other likely reasons, for the difference between GRACE ocean mass and land ice trends.