Estimating glacier mass changes by GRACE satellite gravimetry in the Pamir and Tien-Shan mountains, Central Asia

In 2002, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission was launched, to obtain more information about the Earth´s geoid and gravity field. These data give information about the Earth´s mass change. In this study, the mass change data of GRACE are applied to glaciers in the Pamir and Tien-Shan mountains in Central Asia. These data are compared with data from the WaterGAP Hydrological Model (WGHM) and measured glacier mass balance data from the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS). The data of GRACE and WGHM-TWS show the same seasonal cycle but larger differences are detected with the measured glacier data.