Spatial and temporal Antarctic Ice Sheet mass trends, glacio-isostatic adjustment, and surface processes from a joint inversion of satellite altimeter, gravity, and GPS data

We present spatiotemporal mass balance trends for the Antarctic Ice Sheet from astatistical inversion of satellite altimetry, gravimetry, and elastic-corrected GPS data for the period 2003-2013. Our method simultaneously determines annual trends in ice dynamics, surface mass balanceanomalies, and a time-invariant solution for glacio-isostatic adjustment while remaining largely independent of forward models. We establish that over the period 2003-2013, Antarctica has been losing mass at a rate of -84 22Gtyr(-1), with a sustained negative mean trend of dynamic imbalance of -111 13Gtyr(-1). West Antarctica is the largest contributor with -112 10Gtyr(-1), mainly triggered by high thinning rates of glaciers draining into the Amundsen Sea Embayment. The Antarctic Peninsula has experienced a dramatic increase in mass loss in the last decade, with a mean rate of -28 7Gtyr(-1) and significantly higher values for the most recent years following the destabilization of the Southern Antarctic Peninsula around 2010. The total mass loss is partly compensated by a significant mass gain of 56 +/- 18Gtyr(-1) in East Antarctica due to a positive trend of surface mass balance anomalies.