Chapters authored
Continental Water Storage Changes Sensed by GRACE Satellite Gravimetry
Since its launch in March 2002, the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission has been mapping the time variations of the Earth’s gravity field with a precision of 2–3 cm in terms of geoid height at the surface resolution of 300–400 km. The unprecedented precision of this twin satellite system enables to detect tiny changes of gravity that are due to the water mass variations inside the fluid envelops of our planet. Once they are corrected from known gravitational contributions of the atmosphere and the oceans, the monthly and (bi)weekly GRACE solutions reveal the continental water storage redistributions, and mainly the dominant seasonal cycle in the largest drainage river basins such as Amazon, Congo, Mississippi. The potential differences measured between the twin GRACE satellites represent the sum of integrated surface waters (lakes and rivers), soil moisture, snow, ice and groundwater. Once they are inverted for estimating surface water mass densities, GRACE solutions are also used to establish the long-term mass balance of the ice sheets impacted by global warming, for quantifying the interannual variations of the major aquifers, as well as for surveying the hydrological signatures of intense meteorological events lasting a few days such as tropical hurricanes. This chapter describes GRACE gravity products and the different data processings used for mapping continental water storage variations, it also presents the most remarkable results concerning global continental hydrology and climate changes.
Part of the book: Geodetic Sciences