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Continuity of ice sheet mass loss in Greenland and Antarctica from the GRACE and GRACE Follow-On missions

by I. Velicogna, Y. Mohajerani, G. A, F. Landerer, J. Mouginot, B. Noël, E. Rignot, T. C. Sutterley, M. van den Broeke, J M. van Wessem, and D. Wiese
Geophysical Research Letters (2020)

Abstract:
We examine data continuity between the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow‐On (FO) missions over Greenland and Antarctica using independent data from the mass budget method, which calculates the difference between ice sheet surface mass balance and ice discharge at the periphery. For both ice sheets, we find consistent GRACE/GRACE‐FO time series across the data gap, at the continental and regional scales, and the data gap is confidently filled with mass budget method data. In Greenland, the GRACE‐FO data reveal an exceptional summer loss of 600 Gt in 2019 following two cold summers. In Antarctica, ongoing high mass losses in the Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula, and Wilkes Land in East Antarctica cumulate to 2130, 560, and 370 Gt, respectively, since 2002. A cumulative mass gain of 980 Gt in Queen Maud Land since 2009, however, led to a pause in the acceleration in mass loss from Antarctica after 2016.

Caption: Comparison of GRACE/GRACE‐FO time series from different processing centers (CSR = Center for Space Research at the University of Texas at Austin, USA; JPL = Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA; GFZ = German Research Centre for Geosciences, Germany) in (a) Greenland and (b) Antarctica with data gap in gray vertical bar and mass numbers in gigatons (109 t = 1012 kg).
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