Contributions of terrestrial and GRACE data to the study of the secular geoid changes in North America

We apply the method of least-squares collocation with parameters to combine terrestrial data (GPS vertical velocities from the Canadian Base Network and terrestrial gravity rates from the Canadian Gravity Standardization Net) with the GRACE-derived vertical motion to obtain again the geoid rates. The combined model has a peak geoid rate of 1.4 mm/year in the southeastern area of Hudson Bay contrary to the GRACE-derived geoid rates that show a large peak of 1.6-1.7 mm/year west of Hudson Bay. We demonstrate that the terrestrial data, which have a longer time span than the GRACE data, are important for constraining the GRACE-derived secular signal in the areas that are well sampled by the data.