Analysis of mass loss in Antarctica using GRACE indicates negative trends, suggesting environmental implications for the region.
Several Level-2 solutions for the GRACE(-FO) gravity field exist. We compare five of these solutions using a mascon inversion method to estimate gridded mass change in Antarctica from gravity field grids at orbit height. We compare the mass change for all of Antarctica, as well as for 27 drainage basins. All five solutions show consistent negative mass trends for the period between April 2002 and January 2025 and show a mass accumulation in the East Antarctic basins 12 and 13 during the years 2021, 2022, and the beginning of 2023 but also a rapid mass loss starting in May 2023. While there are regional differences, the error from the Glacial Isostatic Adjustment model exceeds the differences between the solutions looked at in this study.
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Jenny et al. (2025) studied this question.
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