Use of GRACE determined secular gravity rates for glacial isostatic adjustment studies in North-America

Monthly geopotential spherical harmonic coefficients from the GRACE satellite mission are used to determine their usefulness and limitations for studying glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) in North-America. Secular gravity rates are estimated by unweighted least-squares estimation using release 4 coefficients from August 2002 to August 2007 provided by the Center for Space Research (CSR), University of Texas. Smoothing is required to suppress short wavelength noise, in addition to filtering to diminish geographically correlated errors, as shown in previous studies. Optimal cut-off degrees and orders are determined for the destriping filter to maximize the signal to noise ratio. The halfwidth of the Gaussian filter is shown to significantly affect the sensitivity of the GRACE data (with respect to upper mantle viscosity and ice loading history). Therefore, the halfwidth should be selected based on the desired sensitivity.It is shown that increase in water storage in an area south west of Hudson Bay, from the summer of 2003 to the summer of 2006, contributes up to half of the maximum estimated gravity rate. Hydrology models differ in the predictions of the secular change in water storage, therefore even 4-year trend estimates are influenced by the uncertainty in water storage changes. Land ice melting in Greenland and Alaska has a non-negligible contribution, up to one-fourth of the maximum gravity rate.The estimated secular gravity rate shows two distinct peaks that can possibly be due to two domes in the former Pleistocene ice cover: west and south east of Hudson Bay. With a limited number of models, a better fit is obtained with models that use the ICE-3G model compared to the ICE-5G model. However, the uncertainty in interannual variations in hydrology models is too large to constrain the ice loading history with the current data span. For future work in which GRACE will be used to constrain ice loading history and the Earth's radial viscosity profile, it is important to include realistic uncertainty estimates for hydrology models and land ice melting in addition to the effects of lateral heterogeneity.     

冰川均衡调整对东亚重力和海平面变化的影响

新的全球冰川均衡调整(GIA)模型RF3L20(β=0.4)+ICE-4G考虑了地幔黏滞度沿横向的变化,其黏滞度参数得到大地测量、历史相对海平面变化观测和地震剪切波层析模型的较好约束.本文利用该模型预测了东亚现今重力变化和海平面变化,根据当前末次冰川时空变化和黏滞度参考模型中下地幔下部黏滞度认识的差异,评估了预测的不确定性.结果表明,GIA对东亚地区重力场和海平面长期变化有显著的影响:例如,在哈尔滨、长春、泰安、蓟县、郑州、武汉等测站,GIA重力影响达几十纳伽,可用超导重力仪和未来原子重力仪观测出来;在东亚大陆GIA对GRACE监测的等效水柱长期变化的影响为3%~10%,其中青藏高原西部、华北和三峡地区的影响较大.在东海—太平洋区,GIA的相对影响高达20%~40%;GIA使东亚海域绝对海平面以0.27~0.37 mm/a的速率在长期下降,在黄海、东海卫星测高监测的绝对海平面长期变化中,GIA的相对影响分别达6.9%和7.5%;在58个验潮站,平均相对海平面长期上升速率为2.22 mm/a,GIA影响为-0.17 mm/a,其中14个测站GIA的影响达-0.3~-0.4 mm/a.本文GIA预测的结果,对在东亚地区发现弱的地球动力学过程信号、监测水质量长期变化、监测海平面长期变化和分析其机制,提供精密的改正模型.     

冰川均衡调整(GIA)的研究

冰川均衡调整对固体地球物理学、大地测量学、地貌学、海洋学、冰川学、气候变化、水资源、天文学和考古学等学科具有重要的意义,通过其综述性介绍,以吸引我国地学界的注意和兴趣.本文结合作者和国内外研究成果,全方位地阐述了冰川均衡调整研究的完整内涵,首先给出了冰川均衡调整的完整概念,探讨了冰川均衡调整对冰后地壳运动、全球海平面变化、地球重力场、地球旋转运动和应力状态的影响,再分析了冰川均衡调整研究的科学目标和冰川均衡调整研究的历史与现状,最后指出了冰川均衡调整研究的未来发展方向.     

A gravity network in central Greece for secular gravity studies

The Sterea Hellas (central Greece) gravity network was remeasured in 1982, with the addition of 40 new stations. There were no statistically significant gravity differences for most of the gravity stations first established in 1968, but four stations—Arta, Preveza, Levadia, and Kymi—exhibited gravity changes of –121, –74, –39, and –67 gal, respectively.In the absence of repeat levelling, the exact amount of vertical displacement cannot be determined. Nevertheless, for Arta and Preveza some theoretical estimates can be made from shallow seismicity data. The vertical displacement deduced from a seismic-moment calculation for the western part of Greece was found to be about 100 mm, corresponding to a slip rate of approximately 7.5 mm/yr. The corresponding gravity change is too small to account fully for that observed at Arta and Preveza. For the rest, other causes, such as creep, should be considered. For the stations Kymi and Levadia the local seismicity is limited, and no calculation was made of the vertical displacement related to earthquakes.Finally, the possibilities in using the central Greece gravity network for studies of earthquake prediction are discussed.     

Significance of secular trends of mass variations determined from GRACE solutions

Since 2002 the Earth’s gravity field is globally observed by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission. The GRACE monthly gravity field solutions, available from several analysis centres, reflect mass variations in the atmosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere. Due to correlated noise contained in these solutions, it is, however, first necessary to apply an appropriate filtering technique. The resulting, smoothed time series are applied not only to determine variations with different periodic signatures (e.g., seasonal, short and medium-term), but to derive long-periodic mass variations and secular trends as well. As the GRACE monthly solutions always show the integral effect of all mass variations, for separation of single processes, like the GIA (Glacial isostatic adjustment)-related mass increase in Fennoscandia, appropriate reduction models (e.g. from hydrology) are necessary.In this study we show for the example of the Fennoscandian uplift area that GRACE solutions from different analysis centres yield considerably different secular trends. Furthermore, it turns out that the inevitable filtering of the monthly gravity field models affects not only the amplitudes of the signals, but also their spatial resolution and distribution such as the spatial form of the detected signals. It also becomes evident that the determination of trends has to be performed together with the determination of periodic components. All periodic terms which are really contained in the data, and only such, have to be included. The restricted time span of the available GRACE measurements, however, limits the separation of long-periodic and secular signals. It is shown that varying the analysis time span affects the results considerably. Finally, a reduction of hydrological signals from the detected integral secular trends using global hydrological models (WGHM, LaDWorld, GLDAS) is attempted. The differences among the trends resulting from different models illustrate that the state-of-the-art hydrology models are not suitable for this purpose as yet. Consequently, taking the GRACE monthly gravity field solutions from one centre, choosing a single filter and applying an insufficiently reliable reduction model leads sometimes to a misinterpretation of considered geophysical processes. Therefore, one has to be cautious with the final interpretation of the results.     

Glacial isostatic adjustment in Fennoscandia from GRACE data and comparison with geodynamical models

The Earth’s gravity field observed by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission shows variations due to the integral effect of mass variations in the atmosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere. Several institutions, such as the GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) Potsdam, the University of Texas at Austin, Center for Space Research (CSR) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, provide GRACE monthly solutions, which differ slightly due to the application of different reduction models and centre-specific processing schemes. The GRACE data are used to investigate the mass variations in Fennoscandia, an area which is strongly influenced by glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). Hence the focus is set on the computation of secular trends. Different filters (e.g. isotropic and non-isotropic filters) are discussed for the removal of high frequency noise to permit the extraction of the GIA signal. The resulting GRACE based mass variations are compared to global hydrology models (WGHM, LaDWorld) in order to (a) separate possible hydrological signals and (b) validate the hydrology models with regard to long period and secular components. In addition, a pattern matching algorithm is applied to localise the uplift centre, and finally the GRACE signal is compared with the results from a geodynamical modelling. The GRACE data clearly show temporal gravity variations in Fennoscandia. The secular variations are in good agreement with former studies and other independent data. The uplift centre is located over the Bothnian Bay, and the whole uplift area comprises the Scandinavian Peninsula and Finland. The secular variations derived from the GFZ, CSR and JPL monthly solutions differ up to 20%, which is not statistically significant, and the largest signal of about 1.2 Gal/year is obtained from the GFZ solution. Besides the GIA signal, two peaks with positive trend values of about 0.8 Gal/year exist in central eastern Europe, which are not GIA-induced, and also not explainable by the hydrology models. This may indicate that the recent global hydrology models have to be revised with respect to long period and secular components. Finally, the GRACE uplift signal is also in quite good agreement with the results from a simple geodynamical modelling.     

Spectral assessment of isostatic gravity models against CHAMP,GRACE, GOCE satellite-only and combined gravity models

The availability of digital elevation databases representing the topographic and bathymetric relief with global homogeneous coverage and increasing resolution permits the computation of crust-related Earth gravity models, the so-called topographic/isostatic Earth gravity models (henceforth T/I models). Although expressing the spherical harmonic content of the topographic masses, the interpretation purpose of T/I models has not been given the attention it deserves, apart from the fact that they express some degree of compensation to the observed spectrum of the topographic heights, depending on the kind of the applied compensation mechanism. The present contribution attempts to improve the interpretation aspects of T/I Earth gravity models. To this end, a rigorous spectral assessment is performed to a standard Airy/Heiskanen T/I model against different CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP), Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), Gravity field and steadystate Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite-only, and combined gravity models. Different correlation bandwidths emerge for these four groups of satellite-based gravity models. The band-limited forward computation of the models using these bandwidths reproduces nicely the main features of the applied T/I model.     

Evaluation of the glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) models for Antarctica based on GPS vertical velocities

Due to the scarcity of data, modeling the glacial isostatic adjustment(GIA) for Antarctica is more difficult than it is for the ancient ice sheet area in North America and Northern Europe. Large uncertainties are observed in existing GIA models for Antarctica. Modern space-based geodetic measurements provide checks and constraints for GIA models. The present-day uplift velocities of global positioning system(GPS) stations at 73 stations in Antarctica and adjacent regions from 1996 to 2014 have been estimated using GAMIT/GLOBK version 10.5 with a colored noise model. To easily analyze the effect of difference sources on the vertical velocities, and for easy comparison with both GIA model predictions and GPS results from Argus et al.(2014) and Thomas et al.(2011), seven sub-regions are divided. They are the northern Antarctic Peninsula, the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, the Amundsen Sea coast, the Ross Ice Shelf, Mount Erebus, inland Southwest Antarctica and the East Antarctic coast,respectively. The results show that the fast uplift in the north Antarctic Peninsula and Pine Island Bay regions may be caused by the elastic response to snow and ice mass loss. The fast subsidence near Mount Erebus may be related to the activity of a magma body. The uplift or subsidence near the East Antarctic coast is very slow while the uplift for the rest regions is mainly caused by GIA. By analyzing the correlation and the associated weighted root mean square(WRMS) between the GIA predictions and the GPS velocities, we found that the ICE-6G_C(VM5a) model and the Geruo 13 model show the most consistency with our GPS results, while the W12a and IJ05_R2 series models show poor consistency with our GPS results. Although improved greatly in recent years, the GIA modeling in Antarctica still lags behind the modeling of the North American. Some GPS stations, for example the Bennett Nunatak station(BENN), have observed large discrepancies between GIA predictions and GPS velocities.Because of the large uncertainties in calculating elastic responses due to the significant variations of ice and snow loads, the GPS velocities still cannot be used as a precise constraint on GIA models.     

冰川均衡调整对南极冰质量平衡监测的影响及其不确定性

本文研究了新的全球冰川均衡调整(GIA)模型对南极冰盖质量平衡监测的影响,考虑现有冰川负荷模型和地幔黏滞度模型的差异,完整评估了结果的不确定性,最后结合GRACE和卫星测高的结果进行了对比分析.结果表明,GIA对GRACE监测的等效水柱变化有重大影响,较大的GIA影响出现在西南极,沿罗斯冰架-卡姆布冰流-罗尼冰架-南极半岛分布,最大值在卡姆布冰流,达到29.8 mm/a;GIA对南极整体冰质量平衡的影响达到134±28 Gt/a.在不确定性的方差中,西南极和东南极分别以冰负荷模型差异和地幔黏滞度差异影响为主,对整个南极,冰模型差异影响占88.4%;在一些典型地区,GRACE监测的等效水柱在扣除GIA前后分别是,卡姆布冰流~32.8 mm/a和~6.3 mm/a,阿蒙森海湾~-95.3 mm/a和~-102.5 mm/a,Enderby Land~13.6 mm/a和~8.1 mm/a.整个南极冰盖总质量变化在扣除GIA贡献后为-82±29 Gt/a,该估计与卫星测高结果较吻合.此外,GIA对卫星测高监测的冰面高程变化的影响一般不超过8%.本研究为空间大地测量监测南极冰质量平衡提供了新的改正模型.     

新一代GRACE重力卫星反演地球重力场的预期精度

基于低低卫卫跟踪模式,本文主要探讨利用动力学法融合精密轨道数据和星间测距或距离变率数据求解地球重力场的基本原理与方法,该方法既可对两颗低低跟踪卫星的初始状态误差进行有效校正,也可充分利用低轨卫星轨道所包含的低频重力场信息.为探讨适合我国国情的低低跟踪模式下的重力卫星指标,本文以不同星载设备精度指标的组合进行模拟计算,模拟结果显示:(1)把GRACE卫星的星间距离变率指标提高一个量级,其余指标保持与GRACE卫星设计指标一致时,可使地球重力场的精度获得同量级的提高;(2)若星间距离变率为1.0×10-8 m·s-1,轨道高度为300 km,加速度计精度为3.0×10-10 m·s-2,轨道精度为0.03 m, 星间距离100 km,与利用GRACE的设计指标反演出的重力场精度相比,可提高约121倍,并建议我国未来低低跟踪重力卫星计划参考此指标.     

新一代GRACE重力卫星反演地球重力场的预期精度

基于低低卫卫跟踪模式,本文主要探讨利用动力学法融合精密轨道数据和星间测距或距离变率数据求解地球重力场的基本原理与方法,该方法既可对两颗低低跟踪卫星的初始状态误差进行有效校正,也可充分利用低轨卫星轨道所包含的低频重力场信息.为探讨适合我国国情的低低跟踪模式下的重力卫星指标,本文以不同星载设备精度指标的组合进行模拟计算,模拟结果显示:(1)把GRACE卫星的星间距离变率指标提高一个量级,其余指标保持与GRACE卫星设计指标一致时,可使地球重力场的精度获得同量级的提高;(2)若星间距离变率为1.0×10^-8 m·s^-1,轨道高度为300 km,加速度计精度为3.0×10^-10 m·s^-2,轨道精度为0.03 m, 星间距离100 km,与利用GRACE的设计指标反演出的重力场精度相比,可提高约121倍,并建议我国未来低低跟踪重力卫星计划参考此指标.     

GRACE和地面重力测量监测到的中国大陆长期重力变化

自2002年以来,GRACE卫星探测计划可提供高精度的时变地球重力场,用以探测地球系统的物质分布.自1998年中国大陆重力监测网建立以来,利用FG5绝对重力仪和LCR-G型相对重力仪每2年对该网进行重复测量获取重力场时变信息.基于此,本文利用GRACE和地面重力测量获得了中国大陆重力场的长期年变率,利用位错理论根据USGS发布的断层模型计算了2008年汶川Ms8.0级地震的同震重力变化并进行了300 km高斯滤波.GRACE卫星重力和地面重力结果均表明华北地区地下水流失严重,在绝对重力基准站上,GRACE卫星重力与绝对重力变化率较为一致,汶川区域的地面重力变化结果可视为大地震前兆信息.     

利用GRACE重力和重力梯度变化估计2012年苏门答腊地震断层参数

2012年4月11日苏门答腊北部附近海域发生M_W=8.6地震,国际上采用不同数据获得了该地震的断层滑动模型,但断层走滑性质存在较大差异.卫星重力GRACE（Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment）观测覆盖震中区域,可以提供很好的断层参数估计约束.本文采用GRACE月重力场模型数据提取了此次地震同震重力和重力梯度变化,表明了北向分量的优越性.并与断层模型理论计算结果进行了比较,分析了T_xx（北-北向重力梯度）分量对断层参数的敏感性,以及基于粒子群算法以及Okubo位错模型反演了该地震断层参数.结果表明GRACE观测到的同震重力梯度变化在空间形态分布上与断层模型模拟结果符合较好,但振幅差异较大.重力和重力梯度的北向分量可以很好地压制条带误差,其中g_N（北向重力变化）和T_xx的误差最小,其次是T_xz（北-上向重力梯度）,误差最大和对条带误差抑制效果最差的是T_xy（北-东向重力梯度）.T_xx对断层的深度不敏感,对其余断层参数较敏感.基于GRACE反演得到的断层的走向角为113.63°,倾角为89.99°,滑移角为175.26°,平均滑移量为28.18 m,相应的矩震为8.71级,且此次地震的走滑性质为右旋走滑.

     

Features of isostatic gravity anomaly and seismic activity in the Central Asian region

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GRACE时变重力位系数误差处理滤波方法研究

由于GRACE时变重力位系数中高阶次项存在较大的误差,奇(偶)项阶数之间存在着相关性误差,直接利用GRACE时变重力场模型数据反演地表质量变化时,会使结果出现严重的条带噪声,必须采用最佳滤波函数进行空间平滑.本文从滤波理论出发,依据信噪比最大准则和模拟误差比较分析了不同滤波方法的优缺点,并以华北平原为例进行了数值分析....     

Contributions of terrestrial and GRACE data to the study of the secular geoid changes in North America

This paper tests and discusses different statistical methods for modelling secular rates of change of the geoid in North America. In particular, we use the method of principal component/empirical orthogonal functions (PC/EOF) analysis to model the geoid rates from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data. As demonstrated, the PC/EOF analysis is useful for studying the contributions from different signals (mainly residual hydrology signals and leakage effects) to the GRACE-derived geoid rates. The PC/EOF analysis leads to smaller geoid rates compared to the conventional least-squares fitting of a trend and annual and semi-annual cycles to the time series of the spherical harmonic coefficients. This is because we filter out particular spatiotemporal modes of the regional geoid changes.We apply the method of least-squares collocation with parameters to combine terrestrial data (GPS vertical velocities from the Canadian Base Network and terrestrial gravity rates from the Canadian Gravity Standardization Net) with the GRACE-derived vertical motion to obtain again the geoid rates. The combined model has a peak geoid rate of 1.4 mm/year in the southeastern area of Hudson Bay contrary to the GRACE-derived geoid rates that show a large peak of 1.6–1.7 mm/year west of Hudson Bay. We demonstrate that the terrestrial data, which have a longer time span than the GRACE data, are important for constraining the GRACE-derived secular signal in the areas that are well sampled by the data.     

Use of data of satellite system for gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) for studying and assessment of hydrological-geohydrological characteristics of large river basins

Analysis is given of a relatively new method for studying the distribution and dynamics of land water resources, which is based on measuring the anomalies of Earth gravity field with the use of GRACE satellite system. The international satellite experiment on determining the gravity and climate changes has been carried out since 2002 with the aim of making high-frequency (within the frequency range of 10900?C36000 GHz) measurements of time variations in Earth??s gravity field. The measurement method and the procedure of data processing and evaluating the hydrological-geohydrological characteristics of large river basins and regions based on GRACE data.     

高亚洲冰川质量变化趋势的卫星重力探测

利用高亚洲地区32个Mascon,基于GRACE RL05时变重力场模型频域和空域上的两种计算方法有效分离并提取出高亚洲冰川及其毗邻地区的等效水质量变化,得到2002—2013年期间高亚洲地区更为可靠的Mascon质量变化.高亚洲冰川质量变化的空间特征是:青藏高原内陆地区以正增长为主,边缘地区以负增长为主,在藏东南的最边缘地区冰川质量损失最为严重.天山地区、帕米尔和昆仑山地区、喜马拉雅山和喀喇昆仑山地区、青藏高原内陆地区冰川质量的平均变化趋势分别为-2.8±0.9 Gt/a、-3.3±1.5 Gt/a、-9.9±2.1 Gt/a和5.0±0.8 Gt/a, 高亚洲冰川质量整体的平均变化趋势为-11.0±2.9 Gt/a.印度等北部平原地区地下水平均变化趋势为-35.0±4.2 Gt/a,该地区地下水信号泄漏是影响GRACE研究高亚洲冰川质量变化的关键因素,频域法和空域法能有效改正该地区地下水信号泄漏的影响.     

Mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet from GRACE time-variable gravity measurements

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data is used to estimate the rate of ice mass variability over Greenland. To do this, monthly GRACE level 2 Release-04 (RL04) data from three different processing centers, Center for Space Research (CSR), German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) and Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) were used during the period April 2002 to February 2010. It should be noted that some months are missing for all three data sets. Results of computations provide a mass decrease of −163 ± 20 Gigaton per year (Gt/yr) based on CSR-RL04 data, −161 ± 21 Gt/yr based on GFZ-RL04 data and −84 ± 26 Gt/yr based on JPL RL04.1. The results are derived by the application of a non-isotropic filter whose degree of smoothing corresponds to a Gaussian filter with a radius of 340 km. Striping effects in the GRACE data, C₂₀ effect, and leakage effects are taken into the consideration in the computations. There is some significant spread of the results among different processing centers of GRACE solutions; however, estimates achieved in this study are in agreement with the results obtained from alternative GRACE solutions.