Statistically optimal estimation of surface mass anomalies by directly using GRACE level-2 spherical harmonic coefficients as measurements

Point-mass inversion is widely employed in GRACE level-2 data processing. Conventionally, the spherical harmonic (SH) coefficients are used indirectly: a set of pseudo measurements is generated first using the SH coefficients through SH synthesis; then the point-mass inversion is done with these pseudo measurements. To be statistically optimal,...

Separating Long-Term and Short-Term Mass Changes of Antarctic Ice Drainage Basins: A Coupled State Space Analysis of Satellite Observations and Model Products

Satellite gravimetry and altimetry measurements record gravity and elevation changes, respectively, which are useful for determining mass and volume change of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Common methods employ products from regional climate modeling and firn modeling to aid interpretation and to link volume changes to mass changes. Estimating...

Analysis and Mitigation of Biases in Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Balance Trend Estimates From GRACE Mascon Products

Mascon products derived from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellite gravimetry data are widely used to study the Greenland ice sheet mass balance. However, the products released by different research groups—JPL, CSR, and GSFC—show noticeable discrepancies. To understand them, we compare those mascon products with mascon solutions...

A simulation study for future satellite gravimetry missions

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), launched in 2002, was the first low-low satellite-to-satellite tracking (ll-SST) satellite gravity mission. One of its primary objectives was to monitor the redistribution of mass in the Earth's system, which is of vital importance not only to the scientific community, but also to society in...

Estimating geocenter motion and changes in the Earth’s dynamic oblateness from GRACE and geophysical models

Geocenter motion and changes in the Earth’s dynamic oblateness (J2) are of great importance in many applications. Among others, they are critical indicators of largescale mass redistributions, which is invaluable to understand ongoing global climate change. The revolutionary Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission...

Gravity field models derived from Swarm GPS data

It is of great interest to numerous geophysical studies that the time series of global gravity field models derived from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data remains uninterrupted after the end of this mission. With this in mind, some institutes have been spending efforts to estimate gravity field models from alternative...

Detectability of groundwater storage change within the Great Lakes Water Basin using GRACE

Groundwater is a primary hydrological reservoir of the Great Lakes Water Basin (GLB), which is an important region to both Canada and US in terms of culture, society and economy. Due to insufficient observations, there is a knowledge gap about groundwater storage variation and its interaction with the Great Lakes. The objective of this study is...

Identification and Modeling of Sea Level Change Contributors: On GRACE satellite gravity data and their applications to climate monitoring

Since early 2002, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) twin satellite mission provide the scientific community with accurate monthly maps of the Earth's gravity field. On short time-scale, the observed variations are mainly related to a redistribution of water on the Earth's surface. This new data set has lead to a leap forward in...