Accelerated ice-sheet mass loss in antarctica from 18-year satellite laser ranging measurements

• Published in: Annals of Geophysics
• Main Authors: Jin S., Abd-Elbaky M., Feng G.
• Other Authors: Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit Üniversitesi
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Editrice Compositori s.r.l. 2019
• Subjects: Antarctic; East Antarctica; West Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12628/4107; https://doi.org/10.4401/ag-6782

Accurate estimation of the ice-sheet mass balance in Antarctic is very difficult due to complex ice sheet condition and sparse in-situ measurements. In this paper, the low-degree gravity field coefficients of up to degree and order 5 derived from Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) measurements are the first used to determine the ice mass variations in Antarctica for the period 1993-2011, which are compared to Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE). Results show that the ice mass is is decreasing at the rate of -36±13 Gt/y in Antarctica, -42±11 Gt/y in West Antarctica and increasing at 6±10 Gt/y in East Antarctica from 1993 to 2011. The ice mass variations from the SLR 5×5 have a good agreement with the GRACE 5×5, GRACE 5×5 (1&2) and GRACE (60×60) for the entire continent since 2003, but SLR solution of 5×5 is not sufficient to quantify ice losses in West and East Antarctica, respectively. The rate of ice loss in Antarctica is -28±17 Gt/y for 1993-2002 and -55±17 Gt/y for 2003-2011 within one sigma, indicating significant accelerated ice mass losses since 2003. Furthermore, the results from SLR are comparable with GRACE measurements. © 2016 by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. All rights reserved.