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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 34, L21701, doi:10.1029/2007GL031468, 2007

Elastic uplift in southeast Greenland due to rapid ice mass loss

Shfaqat A. Khan

Danish National Space Center, Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark


John Wahr

Department of Physics and Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA


Leigh A. Stearns

Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA


Gordon S. Hamilton

Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA


Tonie van Dam

Faculty of Sciences, Technology, and Communication, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg


Kristine M. Larson

Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA


Olivier Francis

Faculty of Sciences, Technology, and Communication, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg


Abstract

The rapid unloading of ice from the southeastern sector of the Greenland ice sheet between 2001 and 2006 caused an elastic uplift of ∼35 mm at a GPS site in Kulusuk. Most of the uplift results from ice dynamic-induced volume losses on two nearby outlet glaciers. Volume loss from Helheim Glacier, calculated from sequential digital elevation models, contributes about ∼16 mm of the observed uplift, with an additional ∼5 mm from volume loss of Kangerdlugssuaq Glacier. The remaining uplift signal is attributed to significant melt-induced ice volume loss from the ice sheet margin along the southeast coast between 62°N and 66°N.

Received 25 July 2007; accepted 5 October 2007; published 1 November 2007.

Keywords: ice mass loss; GPS; elastic uplift.

Index Terms: 1218 Geodesy and Gravity: Mass balance (0762, 1223, 1631, 1836, 1843, 3010, 3322, 4532); 0720 Cryosphere: Glaciers; 1645 Global Change: Solid Earth (1225); 1240 Geodesy and Gravity: Satellite geodesy: results (6929, 7215, 7230, 7240); 1223 Geodesy and Gravity: Ocean/Earth/atmosphere/hydrosphere/cryosphere interactions (0762, 1218, 3319, 4550).

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Citation: Khan, S. A., J. Wahr, L. A. Stearns, G. S. Hamilton, T. van Dam, K. M. Larson, and O. Francis (2007), Elastic uplift in southeast Greenland due to rapid ice mass loss, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L21701, doi:10.1029/2007GL031468.