Regional acceleration in ice mass loss from Greenland and Antarctica using GRACE time‐variable gravity data

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Velicogna, I, Sutterley, TC, van den Broeke, MR
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 2014
• Subjects: Climate Action; mass balance; time-variable gravity; Greenland; sea level; Antarctica; remote sensing; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences; Amundsen Sea; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; East Antarctica; Greenland Sea; Queen Maud Land
• Online Access: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3794v25j; https://escholarship.org/content/qt3794v25j/qt3794v25j.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1002/2014gl061052

We use Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) monthly gravity fields to determine the regional acceleration in ice mass loss in Greenland and Antarctica for 2003-2013. We find that the total mass loss is controlled by only a few regions. In Greenland, the southeast and northwest generate 70% of the loss (280±58 Gt/yr) mostly from ice dynamics, the southwest accounts for 54% of the total acceleration in loss (25.4±1.2 Gt/yr2) from a decrease in surface mass balance (SMB), followed by the northwest (34%), and we find no significant acceleration in the northeast. In Antarctica, the Amundsen Sea (AS) sector and the Antarctic Peninsula account for 64% and 17%, respectively, of the total loss (180±10 Gt/yr) mainly from ice dynamics. The AS sector contributes most of the acceleration in loss (11±4 Gt/yr2), and Queen Maud Land, East Antarctica, is the only sector with a significant mass gain due to a local increase in SMB (63±5 Gt/yr).