Self-Consistent Ice Mass Balance and Regional Sea Level From Time-Variable Gravity

Abstract

Measurements of time-variable gravity from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and the GRACE Follow-on (GRACE-FO) missions are an invaluable tool for monitoring changes in the mass of the Earth's glaciated regions. We improve upon estimates of glacier and ice sheet mass balance from time-variable gravity by including instantaneous spatiotemporal variations in sea level. Here, a least squares mascon technique is combined with solutions to the sea level equation to iteratively correct the GRACE/GRACE-FO data for the induced sea level response on a monthly basis. We find that variations in regional sea level affect ice sheet mass balance estimates in Greenland by approximately 4% and in Antarctic by approximately 5%. Since 2002, the Greenland ice sheet has been losing mass at an average rate of 263 ± 23 Gt/yr, and the Antarctic ice sheet has been losing mass at average rates between 90 ± 52 and 122 ± 53 Gt/yr depending on the rate of glacial isostatic adjustment. The mass losses from both ice sheets represent an increase of 15.6 ± 2.0 mm to global mean sea levels since 2002.