Interannual variations of the Antarctic ice sheet due to surface mass balance (SMB)
fluctuations are important for mass balance estimates and interpretations. To date, these
variations are primarily assessed by global or regional atmospheric modelling. Satellite
altimetry and satellite gravimetry over the ice sheet provide complementary observations of
the related volume and mass effects, respectively. Yet, so far the interannual signal contents
of these observations have not been extensively studied. We compare and jointly interpret …

By observing temporal volume and mass changes, respectively, satellite radar altimetry (RA)
and satellite gravimetry are complementary tools for ice sheet mass balance studies. We
compare and jointly interpret results from ENVISAT RA and GRACE. The underlying RA
products were generated with the Along-Track Satellite Radar Altimetry approach which
exploits all observations along the repeat track and accounts for time-variable volume echo
effects through analyzing the temporal variations of the radar echo shape. The used GRACE …