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According to a new research study conducted by NASA titled 'Mass gains of the Antarctic ice sheet exceed losses' that was published in the Journal of Glaciology states as its title suggests that Antarctica is gaining more ice than it is losing. This study now stands to challenge the other studies that have claimed just the opposite. However, this ice gaining theory isn't to be taken as any clear or positive indication that the prevailing and alarming climatic conditions are diminishing of any sorts.

According to a statement released by NASA, Jay Zwally, a glaciologist with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and lead author of the study was quoted as saying: "We're essentially in agreement with other studies that show an increase in ice discharge in the Antarctic Peninsula and the Thwaites and Pine Island region of West Antarctica. Our main disagreement is for East Antarctica and the interior of West Antarctica - there, we see an ice gain that exceeds the losses in the other areas."

A team of researchers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Maryland in College Park and Sigma Space Corporation, analyzed satellite data and realized that Antartica had gained a massive 112 billion tons of ice per year during the time period 1992 to 2001. However this rate went downhill from then to 82 billion tons of ice per year during the years 2003 to 2008, reports Newsweek.

According to Jay Zwally and as reported by Newsweek, if this current trend continues, apparently it would take just a mere 20 to 30 years for the ice losses to exceed the ice gains in Antartica, and that could clearly be not good news.

To further take this study forward and gather more accurate measures, NASA is in the process of developing the successor to the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) mission, ICESat-2, which is scheduled to be launched in the year 2018, reports NASA.