Spatial and temporal Antarctic Ice Sheet mass trends, glacio-isostatic adjustment and surface processes from a joint inversion of satellite altimeter, gravity and GPS data

• Main Authors: Martin-Espanol, Alba, Mangion, AZ, Clarke, PJ, Flament, Thomas, Helm, V, King, M., Luthcke, S, Petrie, E, Remy, F, Schoen, N, Wouters, B., Bamber, Jonathan L.
• Other Authors: Sub Dynamics Meteorology, Marine and Atmospheric Research
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Amundsen Sea; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; East Antarctica; The Antarctic; West Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/353363

We present spatiotemporal mass balance trends for the Antarctic Ice Sheet from a statistical inversion of satellite altimetry, gravimetry, and elastic-corrected GPS data for the period 2003–2013. Our method simultaneously determines annual trends in ice dynamics, surface mass balance anomalies, and a time-invariant solution for glacio-isostatic adjustment while remaining largely independent of forward models. We establish that over the period 2003–2013, Antarctica has been losing mass at a rate of −84 ± 22 Gt yr−1, with a sustained negative mean trend of dynamic imbalance of −111 ± 13 Gt yr−1. West Antarctica is the largest contributor with −112 ± 10 Gt yr−1, mainly triggered by high thinning rates of glaciers draining into the Amundsen Sea Embayment. The Antarctic Peninsula has experienced a dramatic increase in mass loss in the last decade, with a mean rate of −28 ± 7 Gt yr−1 and significantly higher values for the most recent years following the destabilization of the Southern Antarctic Peninsula around 2010. The total mass loss is partly compensated by a significant mass gain of 56 ± 18 Gt yr−1 in East Antarctica due to a positive trend of surface mass balance anomalies.