Articles | Volume 9, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-673-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-673-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Precise water level measurements using low-cost GNSS antenna arrays
David J. Purnell
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, 3450 University Street, Montréal, Quebec, H3A 0E8 Canada
Natalya Gomez
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, 3450 University Street, Montréal, Quebec, H3A 0E8 Canada
William Minarik
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, 3450 University Street, Montréal, Quebec, H3A 0E8 Canada
David Porter
Lamont‐Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
Gregory Langston
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, 3450 University Street, Montréal, Quebec, H3A 0E8 Canada
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Mirko Scheinert, Weisen Shen, Richard C. Aster, Lambert Caron, Michael D. Hartinger, Matt A. King, Andrew Lloyd, Anya M. Reading, J. Paul Winberry, Terry Wilson, Lucilla Alfonsi, Michael J. Bentley, Eric Buchta, Thomas Y. Chen, Peter J. Clarke, Jörg Ebbing, Olaf Eisen, Natalya Gomez, Esra Günaydın, Samantha Hansen, Erik R. Ivins, Achraf Koulali, Grace A. Nield, Frederick Richards, Mahmut O. Selbesoglu, Stephanie Sherman, Pippa L. Whitehouse, and Matthias Willen
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6370, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6370, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Solid Earth (SE).
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With an ongoing mass loss the Antarctic Ice Sheet contributes to global-mean sea level rise at a rate of 0.4 mm/a. Thus, it plays a key role in global climate and provides a natural laboratory to study processes that interlink cryosphere, solid Earth, atmosphere and ocean. We discuss how GNSS and seismic networks in Antarctica were used to significantly advance our understanding of these processes, and how they should be maintained and extended to answer key science questions in the future.
Samuel T. Kodama, Tamara Pico, Alexander A. Robel, John Erich Christian, Natalya Gomez, Casey Vigilia, Evelyn Powell, Jessica Gagliardi, Slawek Tulaczyk, and Terrence Blackburn
The Cryosphere, 19, 2935–2948, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2935-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2935-2025, 2025
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We predicted how sea level changed in the Ross Sea (Antarctica) due to glacial isostatic adjustment, or solid Earth ice sheet interactions, over the last deglaciation (20 000 years ago to present) and calculated how these changes in bathymetry impacted ice stream stability. Glacial isostatic adjustment shifts stability from where ice reached its maximum 20 000 years ago, at the continental shelf edge, to the modern grounding line today, reinforcing ice-age climate endmembers.
Erica M. Lucas, Natalya Gomez, and Terry Wilson
The Cryosphere, 19, 2387–2405, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2387-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2387-2025, 2025
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We investigate the effects of incorporating regional-scale lateral variability (ca. 50–100 km) in upper-mantle structure into models of Earth deformation and sea level change associated with ice mass changes in West Antarctica. Regional-scale variability in upper-mantle structure is found to impact relative sea level and crustal rate predictions for modern (last ca. 25–125 years) and projected (next ca. 300 years) ice mass changes, especially in coastal regions that undergo rapid ice mass loss.
Natasha Valencic, Linda Pan, Konstantin Latychev, Natalya Gomez, Evelyn Powell, and Jerry X. Mitrovica
The Cryosphere, 18, 2969–2978, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2969-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2969-2024, 2024
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We quantify the effect of ongoing Antarctic bedrock uplift due to Ice Age or modern ice mass changes on estimates of ice thickness changes obtained from satellite-based ice height measurements. We find that variations in the Ice Age signal introduce an uncertainty in estimates of total Antarctic ice change of up to ~10%. Moreover, the usual assumption that the mapping between modern ice height and thickness changes is uniform systematically underestimates net Antarctic ice volume changes.
Oliver G. Pollard, Natasha L. M. Barlow, Lauren J. Gregoire, Natalya Gomez, Víctor Cartelle, Jeremy C. Ely, and Lachlan C. Astfalck
The Cryosphere, 17, 4751–4777, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4751-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4751-2023, 2023
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We use advanced statistical techniques and a simple ice-sheet model to produce an ensemble of plausible 3D shapes of the ice sheet that once stretched across northern Europe during the previous glacial maximum (140,000 years ago). This new reconstruction, equivalent in volume to 48 ± 8 m of global mean sea-level rise, will improve the interpretation of high sea levels recorded from the Last Interglacial period (120 000 years ago) that provide a useful perspective on the future.
Benjamin E. Smith, Brooke Medley, Xavier Fettweis, Tyler Sutterley, Patrick Alexander, David Porter, and Marco Tedesco
The Cryosphere, 17, 789–808, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-789-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-789-2023, 2023
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We use repeated satellite measurements of the height of the Greenland ice sheet to learn about how three computational models of snowfall, melt, and snow compaction represent actual changes in the ice sheet. We find that the models do a good job of estimating how the parts of the ice sheet near the coast have changed but that two of the models have trouble representing surface melt for the highest part of the ice sheet. This work provides suggestions for how to better model snowmelt.
Jeannette Xiu Wen Wan, Natalya Gomez, Konstantin Latychev, and Holly Kyeore Han
The Cryosphere, 16, 2203–2223, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2203-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2203-2022, 2022
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This paper assesses the grid resolution necessary to accurately model the Earth deformation and sea-level change associated with West Antarctic ice mass changes. We find that results converge at higher resolutions, and errors of less than 5 % can be achieved with a 7.5 km grid. Our results also indicate that error due to grid resolution is negligible compared to the effect of neglecting viscous deformation in low-viscosity regions.
Holly Kyeore Han, Natalya Gomez, and Jeannette Xiu Wen Wan
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 1355–1373, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-1355-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-1355-2022, 2022
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Interactions between ice sheets, sea level and the solid Earth occur over a range of timescales from years to tens of thousands of years. This requires coupled ice-sheet–sea-level models to exchange information frequently, leading to a quadratic increase in computation time with the number of model timesteps. We present a new sea-level model algorithm that allows coupled models to improve the computational feasibility and precisely capture short-term interactions within longer simulations.
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Short summary
We present a new technique for precisely monitoring water levels (e.g. sea level, rivers or lakes) using low-cost equipment (approximately USD 100–200) that is simple to build and install. The technique builds on previous work using antennas that were designed for navigation purposes. Multiple antennas in the same location are used to obtain more precise measurements than those obtained when using a single antenna. Software for analysis is provided with the article.
We present a new technique for precisely monitoring water levels (e.g. sea level, rivers or...