Abstract
We develop regionally‐optimized GRACE solutions to evaluate the mass balance of the drainage basins of Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica and Getz Ice Shelf, West Antarctica. We find that the Amery region is near‐balance, while the Getz region is rapidly losing mass. We compare the results with the Mass Budget Method (MBM) combining ice discharge along the periphery with surface mass balance derived from three regional climate models: 1) Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO) 2.3p1 and 2) 2.3p2, and 3) Modèle Atmosphérique Régional 3.6.41. For Amery, MBM/RACMO2.3p1 agrees with GRACE while MBM/RACMO2.3p2 and MBM/MAR3.6.41 suggest a positive mass balance. For Getz, all estimates agree with a mass loss and the GRACE results are robust to uncertainties in Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) derived from an ensemble 128,000 forward models. Over the period 04/2002‐11/2015, the mass loss of the Getz drainage basin is 22.9±10.9 Gt/yr with an acceleration of 1.6±0.9 Gt/yr2.
Original Manuscript on Geophysical Research Letters: here
Funding
This work was performed at the University of California Irvine and at the Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Cryosphere Science Program.
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Citation:
Mohajerani, Y., Velicogna, I., and Rignot, E. (2019). Evaluation of Regional Climate Models using Regionally-Optimized GRACE Mascons in the Amery and Getz ice shelves basins, Antarctica. Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2019GL084665
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Article Materials ©2019 American Geophysical Union
