ESA Greenland Ice Sheet Climate Change Initiative (Greenland_Ice_Sheet_cci): Greenland Gravimetric Mass Balance from GRACE data (CSR RL06), derived by TU Dresden, v1.3

The data consists of two products: a mass change time series for the entire Greenland Ice Sheet and different drainage basins for the period April 2002 to August 2016; and mass trend grids for different 5-year periods between 2003 and 2016. This version (1.3) is derived from GRACE monthly solutions from the CSR RL06 product.The mass change time series contains the mass change (with respect to a chosen reference month) for all of the Greenland Ice Sheet and each individual drainage basin.

For each month (defined by a decimal year) a mass change in Gt and its associated error (also in Gt) is provided. The mass trend grid product is given in units of mm water equivalent per year.Mass balance is an important variable to understand glacial thinning and ablation rates to enable mapping glacier area change. The time series allows the longer term comparison of trends whereas the mass trend grids provide a yearly snapshot which can be further analysed and compared across the data set.