A Global Assessment of Accelerations in Mass Transport of Surface Geophysical Fluid

Abstract:

Mass transport in the Earth’s surface geophysical fluid layer has complex spatiotemporal patterns. The GRACE gravity mission provides an unprecedented global capability to monitor this important process with high accuracy and resolution. Accurate assessments of global mass transport patterns and budget also depend critically on changes in degree-1 coefficients (geocenter motion) and in Earth’s dynamic oblateness coefficient J₂. We combine GRACE measurements, time series of GNSS data, JPL’s ECCO ocean bottom pressure model, and high-resolution loose a priori models of mass variation regimes to derive complete spherical harmonic spectra of detrended mass variations up to degree and order 180. Mass accelerations are estimated along with linear, annual, semiannual, and the 161-day tidal aliasing components from coefficient time series. The appropriateness of a priori information and estimate uncertainties are further evaluated by variance component estimation and residual statistics of fitting the time series. During the GRACE data period of 2002.2-2015.0, accelerations in mass transport are geographically uneven with significant positive or negative accelerations in various parts of the world. While Greenland and West Antarctica show strong accelerated mass losses, Alaska and the Arctic Ocean have significant positive accelerations with reversals of earlier mass loss trends. No evidence of non-Arctic global mean sea level acceleration due to mass has been found. Depending on region, some estimated accelerations are also not steady over time due to large irregular and interannual variations.