Our “News in Brief” series, which examines the various areas and topics in the earth sciences, takes a look at recent emerging research in glaciology and focuses on its progress with the uncertainties in ice-mass change. Martin Sharp from Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta describes the efforts that have been undertaken in the glaciology community to produce “reconciled” estimates of the mass balance of the world’s land ice using a range of field-based and remote sensing techniques.