Greenland ice velocity maps from the PROMICE project

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32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE) Ice Velocity product (https://doi.org/10.22008/promice/data/sentinel1icevelocity/greenlandicesheet, Solgaard and Kusk, 2021), which is a time series of Greenland Ice Sheet ice velocity mosaics spanning September 2016 through to the present. The product is based on Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar data and has a 500m grid spacing. A new mosaic is available every 12 d and spans two consecutive Sentinel-1 cycles (24 d). The product is made available within ∼10 d of the last acquisition and includes all possible 6 and 12 d pairs within the two Sentinel-1A cycles. We describe our operational processing chain from data selection, mosaicking, and error estimation to final outlier removal. The product is validated against in situ GPS measurements. We find that the standard deviation of the difference between satellite- and GPS-derived velocities (and bias) is 20m yr-1 (-3m yr-1) and 27m yr-1 (-2m yr-1) for the components in an eastern and northern direction, respectively. Over stable ground the values are 8m yr-1 (0.1m yr-1) and 12m yr-1 (-0.6m yr-1) in an eastern and northern direction, respectively. This is within the expected values; however, we expect that the GPS measurements carry a considerable part of this uncertainty. We investigate variations in coverage from both a temporal and spatial perspective. The best spatial coverage is achieved in winter due to the comprehensive data coverage by Sentinel-1 and high coherence, while summer mosaics have the lowest coverage due to widespread melt. The southeast Greenland Ice Sheet margin, along with other areas of high accumulation and melt, often has gaps in the ice velocity mosaics. The spatial comprehensiveness and temporal consistency make the product ideal both for monitoring and for studying ice-sheet-wide and glacier-specific ice discharge and dynamics of glaciers on seasonal scales.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3491-3512
Number of pages22
JournalEarth System Science Data
Volume13
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Jul 2021

Keywords

  • Glaciology, ice sheet, Greenland, velocity mapping

Programme Area

  • Programme Area 5: Nature and Climate

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