Scientists analyzing Greenland's ice sheet using data from the European Cryosat spacecraft have found it is shrinking and losing ice to the ocean.

"If we do not know the contribution from all the sources that have contributed towards global sea level rise, then it is difficult to predict future global sea levels," study first author Kristian K. Kjeldsen, of the Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen, said in a press release. "In our paper we have used direct observations to specify the mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet and thereby highlight its contribution to global sea level rise.

"One of the unique things about our results - which distinguish them from earlier model studies - is that we not only estimate the total mass loss of the entire ice. But we can actually calculate changes all the way down to regional and local levels and say something about changes for individual outlet glaciers."

According to BBC News, the new study, published in the journal Nature, was more notable for the detail it provided as well as the big numbers. The researchers found the ice sheet is losing more than 250 billion tons of ice per year, but were also able to examine individual glaciers and season changes.

"The foundation for our study is a unique set of aerial photographs recorded by the then Danish National Cadastre and Survey, which cover both the ice-free land and extends up to 100 km onto the Inland Ice itself," study senior author Kurt H. Kjær, of the Centre for GeoGenetics, said in the release. "The digital reconstruction of the past and present elevation, which is based on the aerial photos, is a first of its kind and allows for the unique surveying of the entire ice sheet and the landscape in front of the ice."