Characteristics of the Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Variations Revealed by GRACE/GRACE Follow-On Gravimetry

Abstract

As a major contributor to global mean sea-level rise, the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) and the patterns of its mass change have attracted wide attention. Based on Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE)/GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) gravimetry data, we computed monthly non-cumulative mass change time series of the GrIS, which agree with those from the mass budget method confirming the reliability of GRACE-FO-derived mass change. Over the GrIS, mass was mainly gained in winter, followed by spring. It primarily lost mass in summer, with the percentage of summer mass loss versus the corresponding annual mass loss ranging from 61% to 96%. We report that spring mass loss has become more frequent since 2015, and autumn mass gain occurred more frequently after 2014. By separating mass gain from mass loss at the annual timescale, we find that both the mass gain and mass loss showed a slightly increasing trend during 2003–2020, which might be a response to the ongoing Arctic warming. Summer mass variations highly correlated with the summer North Atlantic Oscillation index are dominated by temperature-associated precipitation and meltwater runoff. This study suggests that long-term observations would be necessary to better understand patterns of the GrIS mass variations in future.