Estimation of present-day glacial isostatic adjustment, ice mass change and elastic vertical crustal deformation over the Antarctic ice sheet

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Authors: BAOJUN ZHANG, ZEMIN WANG, FEI LI, JIACHUN AN, YUANDE YANG, JINGBIN LIU
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press 2017
• Subjects: Antarctic glaciology; ice-sheet mass balance; laser altimetry; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Meteorology. Climatology; QC851-999; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; East Antarctica; West Antarctica; Amundsen Sea; Adelie Terre; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet; Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.37; https://doaj.org/article/406bd18184394791bd666d7ebb9183cf

This study explores an iterative method for simultaneously estimating the present-day glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), ice mass change and elastic vertical crustal deformation of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) for the period October 2003–October 2009. The estimations are derived by combining mass measurements of the GRACE mission and surface height observations of the ICESat mission under the constraint of GPS vertical crustal deformation rates in the spatial domain. The influence of active subglacial lakes on GIA estimates are mitigated for the first time through additional processing of ICESat data. The inferred GIA shows that the strongest uplift is found in the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) sector and subsidence mostly occurs in Adelie Terre and the East Antarctica inland. The total GIA-related mass change estimates for the entire AIS, West Antarctica Ice Sheet (WAIS), East Antarctica Ice Sheet (EAIS), and Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet (APIS) are 43 ± 38, 53 ± 24, −23 ± 29 and 13 ± 6 Gt a−1, respectively. The overall ice mass change of the AIS is −46 ± 43 Gt a−1 (WAIS: −104 ± 25, EAIS: 77 ± 35, APIS: −20 ± 6). The most significant ice mass loss and most significant elastic vertical crustal deformations are concentrated in the ASE and northern Antarctic Peninsula.