Earth  ID: 3663

Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Changes from NASA GSFC GRACE Mascon Solutions

Visualizations by Cindy Starr Released on December 11, 2009
Luthcke, S.B., D.D. Rowlands, J.J. McCarthy, A. Arendt, T. Sabaka, J.P. Boy, F.G. Lemoine, "Recent Changes of the Earth's Land Ice from GRACE, " presented at 2009 Fall AGU, H13G-02 (693337), Dec. 14, 2009.

The mass changes of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) are computed from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) inter-satellite range-rate observations for the period April 5, 2003 - July 25, 2009. The mass of the GIS has been computed at 10-day intervals and 200km spatial resolution from a regional high-resolution mascon solution (Luthcke and others, 2008 and 2006). The animation shows the change in mass referenced from April 5, 2003. The spatial variation in surface mass is shown in centimeters equivalent height of water. The time variation of the GIS mass is shown in the x-y plot insert with units of Gigatons.

Corresponding author:
Scott B. Luthcke
NASA GSFC
Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory, Code 698
Scott.B.Luthcke@nasa.gov

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This animation shows mass changes over Greenland with a colorbar, graph and clock overlay.
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This animation shows mass changes over Greenland without the chart, colorbar or seasonal clock.
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A high resolution still image of ice sheet mass changes over Greenland on 07/25/2005.
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A high resolution still image of ice sheet mass changes over Greenland on 07/25/2009.
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Overlay of the graph, clock and colorbar with an alpha channel.
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This colorbar used for the above animation. The minimum data value is -322.933 while the maximum data value is 101.653.

Visualization Credits

Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Visualizer
Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC): Animator
Paul Reddish (Free Spirit Films): Producer
Scott Luthcke (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio The Blue Marble Next Generation data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC) and NASA's Earth Observatory.

Science Paper:
Luthcke, S.B., A.A. Arendt, D.D. Rowlands, J.J. McCarthy and C.F. Larsen. Recent glacier mass changes in the Gulf of Alaska region from GRACE mascon solutions. Journal of Glaciology, Vol. 54, No. 188, 2008.

Luthcke, S.B., H.J. Zwally, W. Abdalati, D.D. Rowlands, R.D. Ray, R.S. Nerem, F.G. Lemoine, J.J. McCarthy and D.S. Chinn. Recent Greenland Ice Mass Loss by Drainage System from Satellite Gravity Observations. Science, 314, 1286, 2006. [DOI: 10.1126/science.1130776]

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3663

Missions:
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE)
Terra

Data Used:

Terra and Aqua/MODIS/Blue Marble: Next Generation also referred to as: BMNG
1/1/2004 - 12/31/2004
Credit:
The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
view all stories where this data set is used
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE)/Star Camera/Mascon Solution
NASA - 4/5/2003 - 7/25/2009
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
GRACE mascon Solutions

Keywords:
SVS >> Global Warming
SVS >> HDTV
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Glaciers/Ice Sheets >> Glacier Mass Balance/Ice Sheet Mass Balance
SVS >> Hyperwall
SVS >> Climate Change
SVS >> For Educators
NASA Science >> Earth
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Solid Earth >> Geomorphic Landforms/processes >> Glacial Processes

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0