Mass balance reassessment of glaciers draining into the Abbot and Getz Ice Shelves of West Antarctica

We present a reassessment of input-output method (IOM) ice mass budget estimates for the Abbot and Getz regions of West Antarctica using CryoSat-2 derived ice thickness estimates. The mass budget is 8 ± 6 Gt yr-1 and 5 ± 17 Gt yr-1 for the Abbot and Getz sectors respectively for the period 2006-2008. Over the Abbot region, our results resolve a previous discrepancy with elevation rates from altimetry, due to a previous 30% overestimation of ice thickness. For the Getz sector, our results are at the more positive bound of estimates from other techniques. Grounding line velocity increases up to 20% between 2007-2014 alongside mean elevation rates of -0.67 ± 0.13 m yr-1 between 2010-2013 indicate the onset of a dynamic thinning signal. Mean snowfall trends of -0.33 m yr-1 -0.80 m yr-1water equivalent since 2006 indicate recent mass trends are driven by both ice dynamics and surface processes.