30-year surface elevation changes over ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica from multiple satellite radar altimeters

• Main Authors: Zhang, B., Wang, Z., An, J., Liu, M., Geng, H.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Antarctic; Greenland; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5017987

As the result of changes in ice dynamics and weather-driven changes on the surface, surface elevation changes over ice sheets are sensitive to climate forcing. Thus, long-term surface elevation changes over ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are of essential to assess the impact of climate change. Here, a dataset of monthly surface elevation time series over ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica at 5km grid resolution using ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat, and CryoSat-2 radar altimeter observations from August 1991 to December 2020. An updated plane-fitting least-squares regression strategy and Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) reconstruction were applied to ensure the accuracy and self-consistency of the merged elevation time series in the data processing. In addition, the cross-comparison with the IceBridge airborne laser altimeter observations confirmed that our merged dataset is reliable. Benefiting from its high temporal and spatial resolutions, the evolution processes on multiple temporal (up to 30 years) of ice loss from the main outflow glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica can be derived in detail. The spatiotemporal patterns of accelerating or decelerating surface elevation changes over ice sheet related to ENSO (for the Antarctic Ice sheet) and NAO (for the Greenland Ice sheet) indicated that climate forcing shifts oceanic forcing or atmospheric forcing in some way to affect ice sheet changes. Our merged time series provide a vital dataset for exploring the processes of climate forcing driving ice sheet change.