Seasonal variation analysis of Greenland ice mass time-series

Abstract

We derive the mass balance of Greenland ice sheet from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) for the period January 2003-October 2014. We have found an ice mass loss with peak amplitude of-15 cm/yr in the southeastern and northwestern parts, and an acceleration of-2.5 cm/yr 2 in the southwestern region. Global warming is a wellknown suspected triggering factor of ice melting. We use MODIS-derived Ice Surface Temperature (IST), and continuous and cross wavelet transforms have been determined to investigate the common power and relative phase between GRACE derived time-series of ice mass changes and IST time-series. Results indicate a high common power between the two time-series for the whole study period, but with different time patterns.

Analysis of the Spatiotemporal Changes of Ice Sheet Mass and Driving Factors in Greenland

“…This was followed by a relatively stable mass loss in the next two years after 2012, and then continued in a decreasing trend. The above results are basically consistent with those obtained by researchers using GRACE data in recent years [27,28,33,36,39,64]. However, the time series of the results of this study are longer than those of previous studies, especially the trend of change in 2015 relative to 2014, and their different values are due to different data sources, time series, and post-processing methods.…”

“…ice sheet was −239 ± 23 km 3 /yr from April 2002 to November 2005. In addition, its decrease rate increased in the northwest and tended to be balanced in the southeast between 2007 and 2009; Wouter et al [37] found that the overall mass change rate of the Greenland ice sheet was −179 ± 25 km3/yr on a smaller scale from February 2003 to January 2008 and the greatest mass loss occurred in the southeastern coast (279 Gt) and the northwest coast (328 Gt) in the summer of 2005 and 2007; Zhu Chuandong et al [38] found that the annual total melting amount of the Greenland ice sheet was 188 ± 10 km 3 /a during 2002-2011, and the melting area mainly concentrated in the southeast and northwest of the ice sheet; Shamshiri et al [39] used GRACE RL05 data to conclude that the peak loss of ice mass was −15 cm/yr in the southeast and northwest of Greenland, and loss acceleration was −2.5 cm/yr 2 in the southwest during 2003-2014. Previous studies not only covered a relatively short period, but also mainly focused on the trend of time series, so there were few studies on the significant distribution of spatial trends and the driving factors of ice sheet mass loss.…”