Recently, the team of Professor Xu Tianhe of the “Satellite Navigation and Remote Sensing” research team under the “Sun Burst and Its Impact on the Planetary Space Environment” Climbing Project of Shandong University used satellite observation data to reveal for the first time the cause of gravity changes in Bohai Sea Region, which provides important reference to the research on sea level change and its mechanism in the offshore sea level of China.

Using the data of GRACE as well as the date of satellite altimetry and ocean model, the team simulated GRACE signals by forward modeling method. The results show that on seasonal scale, the gravity changes observed by GRACE are mainly due to changes of oceanic mass, and the seasonal changes in sediment cannot be detected at present (Figure 1).

The results of this research were published in theJournal of Geodesy, a top international Journal in the field of Geodesy. The first author is Mu Dapeng, a postdoctoral fellow of Shandong University, and the corresponding author is Professor Xu Tianhe, leader of the "Satellite Navigation and Remote Sensing" research team. Using the satellite observation data to study offshore and global sea level change is one of the important research subjects of Professor Xu Tianhe's team. In addition to the above-mentioned achievements, the team has also made breakthrough achievements in the causes of offshore sea level changes globally and in the Arctic Ocean. These studies are supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the China Postdoctoral Fund and the National Key Research and Development Program.

Dapeng Mu^#, Tianhe Xu*, Guochang Xu.An investigation of mass changes in the Bohai Sea observed by GRACE. Journal of Geodesy, 2020, 94: 79.https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-020-01408-1

Dapeng Mu^#, Tianhe Xu*, Guochang Xu. Detecting coastal ocean mass variations with GRACE mascons. Geophysical Journal International, 2019, 217(3): 2071–2080.https://doi.org/10.1080/01490419.2020.1711832

Dapeng Mu^#, Tianhe Xu*, Guochang Xu.Improved Arctic ocean mass variability inferred from time-variable gravity with constraints and dual leakage correction. Marine Geodesy, 2020, 43(3): 269-284.https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggz138