Long term mass changes and interannual variability in the Canadian Archipelago and Gulf of Alaska from GRACE

Abstract:

The mass transfer from land ice to the oceans is a major contributor to global sea-level rise. The glaciated regions of the Canadian Archipelago and the Gulf of Alaska are the next largest ice mass loss contributors outside of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Here we estimate the ice mass change of these regions since 2003 using time-variable gravity data from the GRACE mission. We employ an estimation technique based on spherical Slepian localization functions. These Slepian functions form a sparse set of orthogonal basis functions for a specific region and maximize the signal-to-noise levels of the gravity fields, making them excellent candidates to analyze regional data on the sphere.

Between 2003 and 2012 Ellesmere Island lost mass (-38 Gt/yr) at an accelerating rate (-8 Gt/yr²), while Baffin Island lost mass at a lower rate (-22 Gt/yr) with very low acceleration. During this time, interannual variations were well described by an average seasonal cycle. Since 2013 ice mass in Ellesmere and Baffin islands, as well as Greenland, have diverged from their long term mass change trends. During the summer of 2013 these areas had the lowest recorded melt since the start of the GRACE mission. Through the end of 2014, the difference between the observed mass and the extrapolated long term trend for Greenland grew to over 500 gigatons. In contrast to the Canadian Archipelago, the Gulf of Alaska region has average seasonal mass variations four times larger per unit area and greater variability from year to year. Recent years of below average mass loss have lowered the average mass loss rate from previous estimates.