Hydro-geodesy: Climate change- and global warming-induced mass change detection

Climate change and climate variability have multiple deleterious consequences that affect our daily life. This project aims to develop new methods for determining one of the essential climate variables.

Climate change and climate variability have multiple deleterious consequences that affect our daily life. There is an exceptional opportunity of achieving simultaneous and complementary data from a multitude of geoscience and environmental near-earth orbiting artificial satellites to study phenomena related to climate change. These satellite missions provide essential information about the various phenomena, such as cryosphere changes, ice sheet melting, ocean currents, sea-level change, terrestrial water storage changes, atmospheric composition, soil moisture variation, temperature changes, and earth surface deformations.

Develop new methods

This project was planned as Ph.D. project that aims to develop new methods for determining one of the essential climate variables (ECVs) External link., i.e. surface mass change utilizing satellite gravimetry data (GRACE External link. and GRACE Follow-on External link. missions) and other remote sensing data like the Copernicus External link. programme/missions. Monitoring global and regional mass change/transport/redistribution requires accurate models. The obtained surface mass change (in continents and sea regions) can be used for determining ice sheet melting and global mean sea-level changes, which are the most notable impacts of climate change and global warming.

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE)

This project has high regional and international potential for both science and application. It addresses the effects of global warming on sea-level change and ice melting (e.g. in Greenland and Antarctica) and consequently will influence economic development and people living in the region, including indigenous peoples. The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS External link.) under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC External link.) recognizes these types of studies as an ECV in the same way as temperature, groundwater changes, and soil moisture. Therefore, the relevance of the project for UN sustainable development goals External link. is evident, especially its relationship with Goal 13 and Goal 14.

Read more about the GRACE-project External link.