Elevation change of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its measurement with satellite radar altimetry
Satellite radar altimetry is presently the only method that has provided the spatial coverage and density of observations needed to reduce the present uncertainty in the mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its contribution to change in eustatic sea level. The only such measurement reported,...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Physical and Engineering Sciences |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1995.0074 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.1995.0074 |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsta.1995.0074 2024-06-02T08:07:17+00:00 Elevation change of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its measurement with satellite radar altimetry 1995 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1995.0074 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.1995.0074 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Physical and Engineering Sciences volume 352, issue 1699, page 335-346 ISSN 0962-8428 2054-0299 journal-article 1995 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1995.0074 2024-05-07T14:16:33Z Satellite radar altimetry is presently the only method that has provided the spatial coverage and density of observations needed to reduce the present uncertainty in the mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its contribution to change in eustatic sea level. The only such measurement reported, however, estimated that southern Greenland was thickening at 23±6 cm a -1 which is larger than was thought hitherto. This value is reconsidered given more recent information concerning the errors in the measurement. A survey of measurements of specific mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet is given, together with estimates of its sensitivity to temperature change. The expected behaviour is described of errors in the satellite position and errors in the range measurement to the ice sheet surface. The treatment of biases and the number of independent observations of random errors is described. It is found in particular that a higher degree of independence was given to the random errors than should have been the case. The total error is recalculated with this accounted for, and is found to remain dominated by the bias estimate and therefore largely unaffected by this change; the estimate is 23 ± 7 cm a -1 . It is concluded that the observation does support a recent thickening of the southern Greenland Ice Sheet. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Ice Sheet The Royal Society Greenland Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Physical and Engineering Sciences 352 1699 335 346 |
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Open Polar |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Satellite radar altimetry is presently the only method that has provided the spatial coverage and density of observations needed to reduce the present uncertainty in the mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its contribution to change in eustatic sea level. The only such measurement reported, however, estimated that southern Greenland was thickening at 23±6 cm a -1 which is larger than was thought hitherto. This value is reconsidered given more recent information concerning the errors in the measurement. A survey of measurements of specific mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet is given, together with estimates of its sensitivity to temperature change. The expected behaviour is described of errors in the satellite position and errors in the range measurement to the ice sheet surface. The treatment of biases and the number of independent observations of random errors is described. It is found in particular that a higher degree of independence was given to the random errors than should have been the case. The total error is recalculated with this accounted for, and is found to remain dominated by the bias estimate and therefore largely unaffected by this change; the estimate is 23 ± 7 cm a -1 . It is concluded that the observation does support a recent thickening of the southern Greenland Ice Sheet. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
Elevation change of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its measurement with satellite radar altimetry |
spellingShingle |
Elevation change of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its measurement with satellite radar altimetry |
title_short |
Elevation change of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its measurement with satellite radar altimetry |
title_full |
Elevation change of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its measurement with satellite radar altimetry |
title_fullStr |
Elevation change of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its measurement with satellite radar altimetry |
title_full_unstemmed |
Elevation change of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its measurement with satellite radar altimetry |
title_sort |
elevation change of the greenland ice sheet and its measurement with satellite radar altimetry |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
1995 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1995.0074 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.1995.0074 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Physical and Engineering Sciences volume 352, issue 1699, page 335-346 ISSN 0962-8428 2054-0299 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1995.0074 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Physical and Engineering Sciences |
container_volume |
352 |
container_issue |
1699 |
container_start_page |
335 |
op_container_end_page |
346 |
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1800752339921928192 |