According to a new study by scientists at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Bristol University, an extensive thinning of polar ice has been revealed in Antarctica and Greenland, by the images captured by a laser aboard an orbiting NASA spacecraft.

The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, specified that the satellite laser is essentially used by the scientists with the BAS to measure infinitesimal changes in the thickness of glaciers and ice sheets, along the coast of the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica.

Noting that fast-flowing glaciers cause the maximum loss of ice, BAS scientist Hamish Pritchard said: “We were surprised to see such a strong pattern of thinning glaciers across such large areas of coastline -- it's widespread and in some cases thinning extends hundreds of kilometers inland. We think that warm ocean currents reaching the coast and melting the glacier front is the most likely cause of faster glacier flow.”

Going by the findings forwarded by scientists tabularizing the satellite’s radar measurements, as many as 111 fast-flowing glaciers are currently thinning in Greenland at an average yearly rate of almost 3 feet.

Glaciers on the coast of East Antarctica are also thinning three-fold faster than what scientists earlier perceived.

Sating that the recent report provides an “ominous picture” Inez Fung, a noted atmospheric scientist at UC Berkeley said: “It's very much a cause for worry.”