High spatial resolution Greenland Ice Sheet mass change linked to Greenland Blocking and North Atlantic Oscillation

The low spatial resolution (300–400 km) of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experience (GRACE) and the 11-month data gap between GRACE and GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) complicate the evaluation of long-term ice mass loss at sub-region scale. Although several studies have downscaled GRACE data for water storage evaluation, efforts to downscale ice mass change are limited. Here, we utilized multiscale geographically-weighted regression (MGWR) to improve the spatial resolution of GRACE-derived ice mass change from 0.25° to 5 km in Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). The reconstructed results after downscaling demonstrate consistent temporal variation and reduced noise compared to other reconstruction methods for sub-regions and the entire GrIS. They can capture finer signals of ice mass change while maintaining original spatial characteristics. Validation against free air gravity anomalies changes also demonstrates the superior performance of the downscaled results over the reconstructed CSR Mascon data. For overlapping lines, the mean correlation coefficient (CC) increases from 0.13 to 0.32, with the mean root mean square error (RMSE) decreasing from 1.36 to 1.13. At the intersection points, the mean CC improves from 0.06 to 0.30, and the mean RMSE is reduced from 1.33 to 1.05. They are further used to detect the contributions of Greenland Blocking (GB) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) to high-resolution ice mass change through precipitation and runoff in four sub-periods, during which the driving factors affecting ice mass change differ significantly. Additionally, NAO and GB can influence ice mass change through solid ice discharge by impacting surface temperature and sea-ice concentration.

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Publication Details

Journal
International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
Published
2026-11-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2026.105327
Primary Topic
Geophysics and Gravity Measurements
Type
article
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article

High spatial resolution Greenland Ice Sheet mass change linked to Greenland Blocking and North Atlantic Oscillation

Yong Su, Nicholas E. Barrand, Jiachun An, Zhuoya Shi et al.
2 links
International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
Geophysics and Gravity Measurements
article

High spatial resolution Greenland Ice Sheet mass change linked to Greenland Blocking and North Atlantic Oscillation

Yong Su, Nicholas E. Barrand, Jiachun An, Zhuoya Shi, Qian Li, Hong Geng, Shuang Wu, Baojun Zhang, Zemin Wang
article en

Abstract

The low spatial resolution (300–400 km) of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experience (GRACE) and the 11-month data gap between GRACE and GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) complicate the evaluation of long-term ice mass loss at sub-region scale. Although several studies have downscaled GRACE data for water storage evaluation, efforts to downscale ice mass change are limited. Here, we utilized multiscale geographically-weighted regression (MGWR) to improve the spatial resolution of GRACE-derived ice mass change from 0.25° to 5 km in Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). The reconstructed results after downscaling demonstrate consistent temporal variation and reduced noise compared to other reconstruction methods for sub-regions and the entire GrIS. They can capture finer signals of ice mass change while maintaining original spatial characteristics. Validation against free air gravity anomalies changes also demonstrates the superior performance of the downscaled results over the reconstructed CSR Mascon data. For overlapping lines, the mean correlation coefficient (CC) increases from 0.13 to 0.32, with the mean root mean square error (RMSE) decreasing from 1.36 to 1.13. At the intersection points, the mean CC improves from 0.06 to 0.30, and the mean RMSE is reduced from 1.33 to 1.05. They are further used to detect the contributions of Greenland Blocking (GB) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) to high-resolution ice mass change through precipitation and runoff in four sub-periods, during which the driving factors affecting ice mass change differ significantly. Additionally, NAO and GB can influence ice mass change through solid ice discharge by impacting surface temperature and sea-ice concentration.

International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
Southwest Petroleum University (CN), Wuhan University (CN), Zhengzhou University (CN), Henan Academy of Sciences (CN), University of Birmingham (GB)
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 17%
Geophysics and Gravity Measurements
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