GRACE-derived land-hydrological mass changes and their impact on relative sea-level variations

The GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) mission allows inference of mass variations on, above and beneath the Earth’s surface from gravitational signatures in space. We present a robust and straightforward procedure to derive mass changes from time-variable gravity field estimates. We ou...

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Main Authors: Baur, O., Kuhn, Michael, Featherstone, Will
Format: Journal Article
Published: Oesterreichische Gesellschaft fuer Vermessung und Geoiformation und Oesterreichische Geodaetische Kommission 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18931
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author Baur, O.
Kuhn, Michael
Featherstone, Will
author_facet Baur, O.
Kuhn, Michael
Featherstone, Will
author_sort Baur, O.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) mission allows inference of mass variations on, above and beneath the Earth’s surface from gravitational signatures in space. We present a robust and straightforward procedure to derive mass changes from time-variable gravity field estimates. We outline our solution to the leakage problem and shed light on linear versus accelerated secular-change modeling. Based on a six-year gravity field time-series from March 2003 to February 2009, we provide detailed analysis of two selected areas, Greenland and the Orinoco Basin. As a result, annual Greenland mass loss accelerated by +21.3±3 Gt/yr2 during the six-year period. Furthermore, we show the impact of recent ice melting on global relative sea level. In terms of uniform change, the contributions of Greenland and Antarctica are +0.56±0.01 mm/yr and +0.50±0.07 mm/yr, respectively. However, we prove that simplistic uniform modeling of sea-level variations is insufficient as it disregards the gravitational feedback effect caused by mass redistribution.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-189312017-01-30T12:10:45Z GRACE-derived land-hydrological mass changes and their impact on relative sea-level variations Baur, O. Kuhn, Michael Featherstone, Will mass balance trend estimation Satellite gravimetry sea-level change The GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) mission allows inference of mass variations on, above and beneath the Earth’s surface from gravitational signatures in space. We present a robust and straightforward procedure to derive mass changes from time-variable gravity field estimates. We outline our solution to the leakage problem and shed light on linear versus accelerated secular-change modeling. Based on a six-year gravity field time-series from March 2003 to February 2009, we provide detailed analysis of two selected areas, Greenland and the Orinoco Basin. As a result, annual Greenland mass loss accelerated by +21.3±3 Gt/yr2 during the six-year period. Furthermore, we show the impact of recent ice melting on global relative sea level. In terms of uniform change, the contributions of Greenland and Antarctica are +0.56±0.01 mm/yr and +0.50±0.07 mm/yr, respectively. However, we prove that simplistic uniform modeling of sea-level variations is insufficient as it disregards the gravitational feedback effect caused by mass redistribution. 2011 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18931 Oesterreichische Gesellschaft fuer Vermessung und Geoiformation und Oesterreichische Geodaetische Kommission restricted
spellingShingle mass balance
trend estimation
Satellite gravimetry
sea-level change
Baur, O.
Kuhn, Michael
Featherstone, Will
GRACE-derived land-hydrological mass changes and their impact on relative sea-level variations
title GRACE-derived land-hydrological mass changes and their impact on relative sea-level variations
title_full GRACE-derived land-hydrological mass changes and their impact on relative sea-level variations
title_fullStr GRACE-derived land-hydrological mass changes and their impact on relative sea-level variations
title_full_unstemmed GRACE-derived land-hydrological mass changes and their impact on relative sea-level variations
title_short GRACE-derived land-hydrological mass changes and their impact on relative sea-level variations
title_sort grace-derived land-hydrological mass changes and their impact on relative sea-level variations
topic mass balance
trend estimation
Satellite gravimetry
sea-level change
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18931