Analysis of Mass Variations in Northern Glacial Rebound Areas from GRACE Data

authored by: Holger Steffen, Jürgen Müller, Heiner Denker
Abstract: Since 2002 the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission is mapping the Earth's gravity field, showing variations due to the integral effect of mass variations in the atmosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere. After reduction of oceanic and atmospheric contributions as well as tidal effects during the GRACE standard processing, monthly solutions of the gravity field are provided by several institutions. The solutions of the analysis centres differ slightly, which is due the application of different reduction models and centre-specific processing schemes. In addition, residual signals from insufficient pre-processing of the transmitted satellite data may be present We present our investigation of mass variations in the areas of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) in North America and Northern Europe from GRACE data, especially from the latest release of the GFZ Potsdam. One key issue is the separation of GIA parts and the reduction of the observed quantities by applying dedicated filters and models of hydrological variations. In a further step, we analyse the results of both regions regarding their reliability, and finally a comparison to results from geodynamical modelling is presented. Our results clearly show that the quality of the GRACE-derived gravity change signal benefits from improved reduction models and dedicated analysis techniques. Nevertheless, the comparison to results of geodynamic models still reveals differences, and thus further studies are in progress.
Organisation(s): Institute of Geodesy
Type: Conference contribution
Pages: 501-509
No. of pages: 9
Publication date: 01.12.2009
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Computers in Earth Sciences, Geophysics
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 13 - Climate Action
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85426-5_60 (Access: Unknown)