Publication Date:
2019-07-13
Description:
We construct long-term time series of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet mass change from satellite gravity measurements. A statistical reconstruction approach is developed based on a principal component analysis (PCA) to combine high-resolution spatial modes from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission with the gravity information from conventional satellite tracking data. Uncertainties of this reconstruction are rigorously assessed; they include temporal limitations for short GRACE measurements, spatial limitations for the low-resolution conventional tracking data measurements, and limitations of the estimated statistical relationships between low- and high-degree potential coefficients reflected in the PCA modes. Trends of mass variations in Greenland and Antarctica are assessed against a number of previous studies. The resulting time series for Greenland show a higher rate of mass loss than other methods before 2000, while the Antarctic ice sheet appears heavily influenced by interannual variations.
Keywords:
Geosciences (General)
Type:
GSFC-E-DAA-TN42579
,
Journal of Geodesy (ISSN 0949-7714) (e-ISSN 1432-1394); 91; 1-16
Format:
text
