Surface mass redistribution inversion from global GPS deformation and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) gravity data

Monitoring hydrological redistributions through their integrated gravitational effect is the primary aim of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. Time?variable gravity data from GRACE can be uniquely inverted to hydrology, since mass transfers located at or near the Earth's surface are much larger on shorter timescales...

Accuracy assessment of the monthly GRACE geoids based upon a simulation

Signal and noise in Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) observed surface mass variations

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) product used for this study consists of 43 monthly potential coefficient sets released by the GRACE science team which are used to generate surface mass thickness grids expressed as equivalent water heights (EQWHs). We optimized both the smoothing radius and the level of approximation by...

Improved accuracy of GRACE gravity solutions through empirical orthogonal function filtering of spherical harmonics

One of the major problems one has to deal with when working with Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data is the increasing error spectrum at higher degrees in the provided Stokes coefficients, appearing as unphysical North?South striping patterns in the maps of equivalent water height (EWH). This phenomenon is commonly suppressed by...

GRACE observes small?scale mass loss in Greenland

Using satellite gravity data between February 2003 and January 2008, we examine changes in Greenland's mass distribution on a regional scale. During this period, Greenland lost mass at a mean rate of 179 ± 25 Gt/yr, equivalent to a global mean sea level change of 0.5 ± 0.1 mm/yr. Rates increase over time, suggesting an acceleration of the mass...

Revisiting Greenland ice sheet mass loss observed by GRACE

In this paper we discuss a new method for determining mass time series for 16 hydrological basins representing the Greenland system (GS) whereby we rely on Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission data. In the same analysis we also considered observed mass changes over Ellesmere Island, Baffin Island, Iceland, and Svalbard (EBIS)....

Antarctic contribution to sea level rise observed by GRACE with improved GIA correction

Antarctic volume changes during the past 21 thousand years are smaller than previously thought, and here we construct an ice sheet history that drives a forward model prediction of the glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) gravity signal. The new model, in turn, should give predictions that are constrained with recent uplift data. The impact of the...

A mascon approach to assess ice sheet and glacier mass balances and their uncertainties from GRACE data

The purpose of this paper is to assess the mass changes of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS), Ice Sheets over Antarctica, and Land glaciers and Ice Caps with a global mascon method that yields monthly mass variations at 10,242 mascons. Input for this method are level 2 data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) system collected...

Effect of GIA models with 3D composite mantle viscosity on GRACE mass balance estimates for Antarctica

Seismic data indicate that there are large viscosity variations in the mantle beneath Antarctica. Consideration of such variations would affect predictions of models of Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA), which are used to correct satellite measurements of ice mass change. However, most GIA models used for that purpose have assumed the mantle to...

Evaluating GRACE Mass Change Time Series for the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheet—Methods and Results

Satellite gravimetry data acquired by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) allows to derive the temporal evolution in ice mass for both the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) and the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS). Various algorithms have been used in a wide range of studies to generate Gravimetric Mass Balance (GMB) products. Results from...