Growth of the Greenland ice sheet: a performance assessment of altimeter retracking algorithms

The authors compare the performance of different altimeter retracking algorithms for measuring ice sheet elevations and growth rates. The results show that the threshold, ESA, and S/V retracking algorithms produce growth rates that are 30-55% smaller than those produced by the NASA algorithm. Based upon a comparison of crossover-point standard deviations, the analysis indicates that the surface elevation estimates produced by these algorithms are more repeatable than the NASA surface elevations. An analysis of the NASA algorithm shows that a mixing of its 5 and 9 parameter functional fits on the crossover-point altimeter waveforms occurs in over 70% of the crossover data. The mixing of the functional fits is shown to reduce the repeatability of the NASA elevations and this may be responsible for the larger estimates of ice sheet growth produced by the NASA retracking algorithm. The extremely close agreement between the standard deviations and the growth-rate estimates from the threshold, ESA, and S/V retracking algorithms: lead the authors to conclude that 0.10 m/yr is a more accurate estimate of the growth of the Greenland ice sheet from 1978-1987 (south of 72°N)