Antarctic tides from GRACE satellite accelerations

Abstract

AbstractThe extended length of the GRACE data time series (now 13.5 years) provides the unique opportunity to estimate global mass variations due to ocean tides at large (∼300 km) spatial scales. State‐of‐the‐art global tide models rely heavily on satellite altimetry data, which are sparse for latitudes higher than 66°. Thus, the performance of the models is typically worse at higher latitudes. GRACE data, alternately, extend to polar latitudes and therefore provide information for both model validation and improvement at the higher latitudes. In this work, 11 years of GRACE inter‐satellite range‐acceleration measurements are inverted to solve for corrections to the amplitudes and phases of the major solar and lunar ocean tidal constituents (M2, K1, S2, and O1) from the GOT4.7 ocean tide model at latitudes south of 50°S. Two independent inversion and regularization methods are employed and compared against one another. Uncertainty estimates are derived by subtracting two independent solutions, each spanning a unique 5.5 years of data. Features above the noise floor in the derived solutions likely represent errors in GOT4.7. We find the GOT4.7 amplitudes to be generally too small for M2 and K1, and too large for S2 and O1, and to spatially correlate with geographic regions where GOT4.7 predicts the largest tidal amplitudes. In particular, we find GOT4.7 errors to be dominant over the Patagonia shelf (M2), the Filchner‐Ronne Ice Shelf (M2 and S2), the Ross Ice Shelf (S2), and the Weddell and Ross Seas (K1 and O1).