Contributions of Greenland GPS observed deformation from multisource mass loading induced seasonal and transient signals

Abstract

Global Positioning System (GPS) provides critical geodetic constraints on Earth's elastic response induced by ice and other mass loadings in Greenland. Previous studies focused on long-term ice mass changes, with relatively fewer studies on transient signals and had used fewer GPS stations. Here we reconstructed 44 Greenland-wide coastal decadal GPS time series using multichannel singular spectral analysis and quantified the origins of spatiotemporal patterns of transient to seasonal signals. We used an exhaustive list of geophysical processes, including surface mass balance (SMB), atmospheric pressure, continental hydrology, nontidal ocean loading, bedrock thermal expansion, precipitation, runoff, and ice discharge, and identified that most of Greenland's GPS sites exhibit SMB-induced transient signals during 2012–2015, with maximum displacement reaching 20.45 mm. Analyses of differenced time series between adjacent GPS stations near peripheral glaciers reveal that locally varying seasonal signals are primarily attributable to SMB, followed by atmosphere.