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: Martín-Español, Alba, Zammit-Mangion, Andrew, Clarke, Peter J, Flament, Thomas, Helm, Veit, King, Matt A, Luthcke, Scott B, Petrie, Elizabeth, Rémy, Frederique, Schön, Nana, Wouters, Bert, Bamber, Jonathan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Research Online 2016
• Subjects: Engineering; Science and Technology Studies; Amundsen Sea; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; East Antarctica; The Antarctic; West Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://ro.uow.edu.au/eispapers/5400; https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6428&context=eispapers

The Authors. 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.