Satellite data have revealed that the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets are changing rapidly due to warming air and ocean temperatures. Crucially, Earth Observations can now be used to measure ice sheet mass balance at the continental scale, which can help reduce uncertainties in the ice sheets’ past, present, and future contributions to global mean sea level. The launch of satellite missions dedicated to the polar regions led to great progress towards a better assessment of the state of the ice sheets, which, in combination with ice sheet models, have furthered our understanding of the physical processes leading to changes in the ice sheets' properties. There is now a three-decade-long satellite record of Antarctica and Greenland mass changes, and new satellite missions are planned to both continue this record and further develop our observational capabilities, which is critical as the ice sheets remain the most uncertain component of future sea-level rise. In this paper, we review the mechanisms leading to ice sheets' mass changes and describe the state of the art of the satellite techniques used to monitor Greenland’s and Antarctica’s mass balance, providing an overview of the contributions of Earth Observations to our knowledge of these vast and remote regions.

卫星数据显示，由于空气和海洋温度变暖，格陵兰岛和南极冰盖正在迅速变化。至关重要的是，地球观测现在可用于测量大陆范围内的冰盖质量平衡，这有助于减少冰盖过去、现在和未来对全球平均海平面影响的不确定性。专门针对极地地区的卫星任务的发射在更好地评估冰盖状况方面取得了巨大进展，结合冰盖模型，进一步加深了我们对导致冰盖变化的物理过程的理解' 特性。现在有南极洲和格陵兰岛质量变化长达三个十年的卫星记录，并且计划执行新的卫星任务以延续这一记录并进一步发展我们的观测能力，这至关重要，因为冰盖仍然是未来最不确定的组成部分海平面上升。在本文中，我们回顾了导致冰盖质量变化的机制，并描述了用于监测格陵兰岛和南极洲质量平衡的卫星技术的最新技术，概述了地球观测对我们了解这些巨大冰盖的贡献。和偏远地区。