Geoid displacement about Greenland resulting from past and present-day mass changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Fleming, K., Martinec, Z., Hagedoorn, J.
• Other Authors: 1.2 Global Geomonitoring and Gravity Field, 1.0 Geodesy and Remote Sensing, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum, Gravity Field and Gravimetry -2009, Geoengineering Centres, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: 550 - Earth sciences; Patagonia; Greenland; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet; Alaska
• Online Access: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_231153

Abstract [1] Predictions are presented of secular changes in the geoid arising from glacial-isostatic adjustment (GIA) following the Last Glacial Maximum and from present-day mass changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS). Geoid displacement from ongoing GIA is dominated by ice-load changes outside of Greenland at lower spherical-harmonic degrees (<30), and modified at higher degrees by the recent (last few thousand years) GIS history. Ice-margin mass changes dominate the present-day GIS geoid response, although comparable signals are obtained when considering the uncertainty range in the higher-elevation changes (>2000 m). Spatial variability is noted when the present-day GIS response is expanded to degree and order 32. This is detectable by GRACE when assuming an optimistic accuracy, but is too small by a factor of ca. 3 for an alternate accuracy estimate. Present-day GIS geoid displacement rates are generally less than the equivalent response from ice-mass changes in Antarctica, Patagonia and Alaska.