Tracking Seasonal Fluctuations in Land Water Storage Using Global Models and GRACE Satellites
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: Seasonal water storage fluctuations are critical for evaluating water scarcity linked to climate forcing and human intervention. Here we compare seasonal changes in land total water storage anomalies using seven global hydrologic and land surface models (WGHM, PCR‐GLOBWB, and five GLDAS models) to GRACE satellite data in 183 river basins globally. This work builds on previous analysis that focused on total water storage anomaly trends. Results show that most models underestimate seasonal water storage amplitudes in tropical and (semi)arid basins and land surface models generally overestimate amplitudes in northern basins. Some models (CLM‐5.0 and PCR‐GLOBWB) agree better with GRACE than others. Causes of model‐GRACE discrepancies are attributed to missing storage compartments (e.g., surface water and/or groundwater) and underestimation of modeled storage capacities in tropical basins and to variations in modeled fluxes in northern basins. This study underscores the importance of considering water storage, in addition to water fluxes, to improve global models.
Source: Geophysical Research Letters
DOI: 10.1029/2018gl081836
Authors: B. R. Scanlon, Z. Zhang, A. Rateb, A. Sun, D. Wiese, H. Save, H. Beaudoing, M. H. Lo, H. Müller‐Schmied, P. Döll, R. van Beek, S. Swenson, D. Lawrence, M. Croteau, R. C. Reedy
Institutions: Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center, National Taiwan University, Goethe University Frankfurt, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Utrecht University, NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, NSF NCAR Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory, University of Colorado Boulder
Language: English
Subfield: Oceanography
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2942341537