[G03-5] Solid-Earth and other applications

[G03-5-02] Uncertainty of GRACE-borne long periodic and secular ice mass variations in Antarctica

^○Lorant Foldvary^{1, 2}, Annamaria Kiss³ (1.Institute of Geoinformatics, Obuda University, Szekesfehervar, Hungary, 2.Geodetic and Geophysical Institute, Research Centre of Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Science, Sopron, Hungary, 3.Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary)

Glacial ice mass balance of Antarctica can be determined by monthly gravity field solutions derived from GRACE observations. The present investigation delivers an error estimation of the long-periodic and secular variations by determining the linear trend of the observed surface mass anomaly series. The analysis focuses on unavoidable error sources and disregards the consequences of the methodology. Among the error sources, the error of the timing of the trend fitting, the error of the glacial isostatic adjustment correction, and the error of the atmospheric correction of the GRACE monthly solutions are discussed. The investigation concludes that apart from West Antarctica, Wilkes Land, Queen Maud Land and Enderby Land no reliable trend estimates of ice mass variation can be expected, thus any results should be treated with care.