GPS Measurements of Crustal Uplift near Jakobshavn Isbrae due to Glacial Ice Mass Loss

in Journal of Geophysical Research (2010), 115

We analyze 2006–2009 data from four continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers located between 5 and 150 km from the glacier Jakobshavn Isbræ, West Greenland. The GPS stations were established ... [more ▼]

We analyze 2006–2009 data from four continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers located between 5 and 150 km from the glacier Jakobshavn Isbræ, West Greenland. The GPS stations were established on bedrock to determine the vertical crustal motion due to the unloading of ice from Jakobshavn Isbræ. All stations experienced uplift, but the uplift rate at Kangia North, only 5 km from the glacier front, was about 10 mm yr−1 larger than the rate at Ilulissat, located only "45 km further away. This suggests that most of the uplift is due to the unloading of the Earth’s surface as Jakobshavn thins and loses mass. Our estimate of Jakobshavn’s contribution to uplift rates at Kangia North and Ilulissat are 14.6 ± 1.7 mm yr−1 and 4.9 ± 1.1 mm yr−1, respectively. The observed rates are consistent with a glacier thinning model based on repeat altimeter surveys from NASA’s Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM), which shows that Jakobshavn lost mass at an average rate of 22 ± 2 km3 yr−1 between 2006 and 2009. At Kangia North and Ilulissat, the predicted uplift rates computed using thinning estimates from the ATM laser altimetry are 12.1 ± 0.9 mm yr−1 and 3.2 ± 0.3 mm yr−1, respectively. The observed rates are slightly larger than the predicted rates. The fact that the GPS uplift rates are much larger closer to Jakobshavn than further away, and are consistent with rates inferred using the ATM!based glacier thinning model, shows that GPS measurements of crustal motion are a potentially useful method for assessing ice!mass change models. [less ▲]

Effect of the satellite laser ranging network distribution on geocenter motion estimation

in Journal of Geophysical Research (2009), 114

SLR network translations estimated between a quasi-instantaneous station position set, theoretically expressed with respect to the center of mass of the Earth (CM), and a secular reference frame are the ... [more ▼]

SLR network translations estimated between a quasi-instantaneous station position set, theoretically expressed with respect to the center of mass of the Earth (CM), and a secular reference frame are the signature of the motion of the CM with respect to the Earth crust. Geocenter motion is defined here to be the motion of the CM with respect to the geometric center of the solid Earth surface (CF). SLR translational variations cannot be rigorously interpreted as identical to geocenter motion due to the sparse and nonuniform distribution of the SLR network. Their difference is called the network effect, which should be dominated at subdecadal timescales by loading signals.We have computed translation time series of the SLR network using two independent geophysically based loading models. One is a displacement model estimated from surface fluid data (Green’s function approach), called forward model, and the other is a displacement model estimated from GPS and ocean bottom pressure (OBP) data, called inverse model. The translation models have been subtracted from their respective geocenter motion models computed from degree-1 mass load coefficients in order to evaluate their network effect biases. Scatter due to the SLR network effect is at the level of 1.5 mm RMS. It could slightly shift the phase of the annual SLR geocenter motion estimate by less than 1 month and could affect X and Z annual geocenter motion amplitudes at the 1-mm level, which is about one third of the expected signal. Two distinct methods are suggested to account for network effect when comparing SLR translations to geocenter motion models. The first is to add the network effect term predicted by a displacement model to the geocenter motion loading model. The second relies on an adequate combination of SLR and GPS products to estimate SLR translation that could be better compared with geocenter motion. [less ▲]

Hydrogeological investigations at the Membach station, Belgium and application to correct long periodic gravity variations

in Journal of Geophysical Research (2006), 111

A comprehensive hydrogeological investigation regarding the influence of variations in local and regional water mass on superconducting gravity measurements is presented for observations taken near the ... [more ▼]

A comprehensive hydrogeological investigation regarding the influence of variations in local and regional water mass on superconducting gravity measurements is presented for observations taken near the geodynamic station of Membach, Belgium. Applying a regional water storage model, the gravity contribution due to the elastic deformation of the Earth was derived. In addition, the Newtonian gravity effect induced by the local water mass variations was calculated, using soil moisture observations taken at the ground surface (about 48 m above the gravimeters). The computation of the gravimetric effect is based on a digital elevation model with spatially discretized rectangular prisms. The obtained results are compared with the observations of a superconducting gravimeter (SG). We find that the seasonal variations can be reasonably well predicted with the regional water storage model and the local Newtonian effects. Shorter-period effects depend on the local changes in hydrology. This result shows the sensitivity of SG observations to very local water storage changes. [less ▲]

Geocenter motions from GPS: A unified observation model

in Journal of Geophysical Research (2006), 111(B05), 1-66

We test a unified observation model for estimating surface-loading-induced geocenter motion using GPS. In principle, this model is more complete than current methods, since both the translation and ... [more ▼]

We test a unified observation model for estimating surface-loading-induced geocenter motion using GPS. In principle, this model is more complete than current methods, since both the translation and deformation of the network are modeled in a frame at the center of mass of the entire Earth system. Real and synthetic data for six different GPS analyses over the period 1997.25–2004.25 are used to (1) build a comprehensive appraisal of the errors and (2) compare this unified approach with the alternatives. The network shift approach is found to perform particularly poorly with GPS. Furthermore, erroneously estimating additional scale changes with this approach can suggest an apparently significant seasonal variation which is due to real loading. An alternative to the network shift approach involves modeling degree-1 and possibly higher-degree deformations of the solid Earth in a realization of the center of figure frame. This approach is shown to be more robust for unevenly distributed networks. We find that a unified approach gives the lowest formal error of geocenter motion, smaller differences from the true value when using synthetic data, the best agreement between five different GPS analyses, and the closest (submillimeter) agreement with the geocenter motion predicted from loading models and estimated using satellite laser ranging. For five different GPS analyses, best estimates of annual geocenter motion have a weighted root-mean-square agreement of 0.6, 0.6, and 0.8 mm in amplitude and 21°, 22°, and 22° in phase for x, y, and z, respectively. [less ▲]

Effects of atmospheric pressure loading and seven-parameter transformations on estimates of geocenter motion and station heights from space geodetic observations

in Journal of Geophysical Research (2005), 110

Variations in fluid loads such as the oceans and the atmosphere deform the surface of the Earth. The accuracy of station coordinates, in particular, heights, that can be estimated depends on how well one ... [more ▼]

Variations in fluid loads such as the oceans and the atmosphere deform the surface of the Earth. The accuracy of station coordinates, in particular, heights, that can be estimated depends on how well one can separate these surface deformations from the associated translational motion between the center of mass of the solid Earth and the total Earth (CM). We applied simulated atmospheric pressure loading effects to the coordinates of sites in the CM frame to explore to what level of accuracy both geocenter motion and accurate station coordinates can actually be recovered from geodetic analyses. We found that standard seven-parameter transformations (three rotations, three translations, scale) generally recover about 80% of the geocenter motion; however, the inclusion of a scale factor permits the aliasing of surface loading deformation, introducing scale errors of up to 0.3 ppb and daily height errors as large as 4 mm. This limits the geophysical studies that can be performed accurately using the results of geodetic analyses where the magnitudes of the signals are small (e.g., tectonic movement of tide gauges, uplift rates for interpreting glacial isostatic adjustment). The quality of the geodetic results is extremely sensitive to the number and distribution of sites used to estimate the transformations and becomes worse when regional (rather than global) sets of sites are used. If the scale factor parameter is omitted, then the amount of aliasing of surface loading effects is reduced considerably and more accurate site velocities and geocenter motion estimates are achieved. [less ▲]

GPS measurements of vertical crustal motion in Greenland

in Journal of Geophysical Research (2001), 106(D24), 33755-33759

We have analyzed 5 years of continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements taken at Kellyville, just off the western margin of the ice sheet in southern Greenland. A fit to the vertical component ... [more ▼]

We have analyzed 5 years of continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements taken at Kellyville, just off the western margin of the ice sheet in southern Greenland. A fit to the vertical component gives a negative secular uplift rate of −5.8±1.0 mm/yr. A negative rate (i.e., a subsidence) is consistent with archeological and historical evidence that the surrounding region has been subsiding over the last 3 kyr. However, it is inconsistent with estimates of the Earth's continuing viscoelastic response to melting ice prior to 4 ka years ago, which predict that Kellyville should be uplifting, rather than subsiding, by 2.0±3.5 mm/yr. The resulting −7.8±3.6 mm/yr discrepancy is too large to be the result of loading from present-day changes in nearby ice. We show, instead, that it is consistent with independent suggestions that the western ice sheet margin in this region of Greenland may have advanced by ≈50 km during the past 3–4 kyr. [less ▲]

Accuracy assessment of recent ocean tide models

in Journal of Geophysical Research (1997), 102(C11), 25173-25194

Detection of atmospheric pressure loading using Very Long Baseline Interferometry measurements

in Journal of Geophysical Research (1994), 99(B3), 4505-4518

Loading of the Earth by the temporal redistribution of global atmospheric mass is likely to displace the positions of geodetic monuments by tens of millimeters both vertically and horizontally. Estimates ... [more ▼]

Loading of the Earth by the temporal redistribution of global atmospheric mass is likely to displace the positions of geodetic monuments by tens of millimeters both vertically and horizontally. Estimates of these displacements are determined by convolving National Meteorological Center (NMC) global values of atmospheric surface pressure with Farrell's elastic Green's functions. An analysis of the distances between radio telescopes determined by very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) between 1984 and 1992 reveals that in many of the cases studied there is a significant contribution to baseline length change due to atmospheric pressure loading. Our analysis covers intersite distances of between 1000 and 10,000 km and is restricted to those baselines measured more than 100 times. Accounting for the load effects (after first removing a best fit slope) reduces the weighted root-mean-square (WRMS) scatter of the baseline length residuals on 11 of the 22 baselines investigated. The slight degradation observed in the WRMS scatter on the remaining baselines is largely consistent with the expected statistical fluctuations when a small correction is applied to a data set having a much larger random noise. The results from all baselines are consistent with ∼60% of the computed pressure contribution being present in the VLBI length determinations. Site dependent coefficients determined by fitting local pressure to the theoretical radial displacement are found to reproduce the deformation caused by the regional pressure to within 25% for most inland sites. The coefficients are less reliable at near coastal and island stations. [less ▲]

Global Charts of Ocean Tide Loading Effects

in Journal of Geophysical Research (1990), 95(C7), 11411-11424