A recent climate report from the White House said that sea levels could rise by a maximum of 6.6 feet by the year 2100. However, according to a new report from researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine President Obama may need to revise that estimate.

Currently, the six glaciers in the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica contribute almost as much to sea level rise as the massive Greenland Ice Sheet. After studying 40 years of data from a variety of sources, the researchers say that level is going to accelerate.

According to the study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the Western Antarctic ice is melting faster than previously thought and will contribute four feet to sea level rise by the time the glaciers are gone. However, the complete disappearance  likely won’t be for some time. 

“This sector will be a major contributor to sea level rise in the decades and centuries to come. A conservative estimate is it could take several centuries for all of the ice to flow into the sea,” said Eric Rignot of UC Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a statement.

The research included satellite data gathered between 1992 and 2011 which showed that the ice is being melted by warming oceans around and underneath the ice. Mountain ranges or other large geological features beneath the ice might provide insulation and slow the melt. However, ice penetrating radar showed no such features under five of the six glaciers studied.

“The collapse of this sector of West Antarctica appears to be unstoppable. The fact that the retreat is happening simultaneously over a large sector suggests it was triggered by a common cause, such as an increase in the amount of ocean heat beneath the floating sections of the glaciers. At this point, the end of this sector appears to be inevitable,” Rignot concluded. 

NASA’s Operation Icebridge uses specialized airplanes and research equipment to monitor the health and status of global ice.