Project Details
Determination of the Fennoscandian Land Uplift and Mass Variations in Northern Europe from GRACE Data
Applicant
Professor Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Müller
Subject Area
Geophysics
Term
from 2006 to 2009
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 30062430
Gravity field variations as derived from the monthly GRACE solutions result from the integral effect of mass variations in the atmosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere. These effects include oceanic, atmospheric and hydrological mass movements and those caused by dynamics in the Earth¿s interior. In addition, residual signals from insufficient pre-processing may be present. The main objective of this project is to extract mass variations in Northern Europe (and Canada) from the GRACE data, especially those which are related to the Fennoscandian land uplift resp. glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). One key issue is the separation of the various signal parts and the reduction of the observed (or derived) quantities by applying dedicated filter (e.g. Gaussian or non-isotropic) and analysis techniques (e.g. pattern recognition). The relevant time scales (e.g. annual, semi-annual, secular) for each process will be analysed in a consistent way. Besides filtering of the various signal parts, the quality assessment of the individual measurements and the reduction models are of special relevance, in order to determine the interrelations and the corresponding accuracies. The uplift results will then be compared resp. combined with terrestrial data. Finally, the developed methods shall be transferred to other regions (e.g. permafrost regions) and the results shall be generalised.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes