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GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences

A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Remote Sensing in Geology, Geomorphology and Hydrology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 March 2021) | Viewed by 48923

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lucia Seoane

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
UPS, Géoscience Environnement Toulouse (GET) UMR 5563, 14 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
Interests: geodesy; gravimetry; geophysics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Guillaume Ramillien

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Géosciences Environnement Toulouse, UMR 5563, CNRS/IRD/UPS, Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, 14 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
Interests: marine geophysics; oceanography; hydrology and surface water storage; fresh water flux; height system; geoid; gravity; bathymetry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

During the last decade, the space gravimetry mission GRACE has been the key to progress in understanding water and ice mass transport at the Earth surface. From its launch in March 2002 until its end in 2017, the performance of the GRACE twin satellites placed at low altitude (~400 km) allowed mapping global gravity field variations with unprecedented temporal and surface spatial resolutions, i.e., 1 month and 300–400 km, respectively. This new type of gravity observations plays a crucial role in climate change sciences as Level-2 GRACE products have given access to surface water redistributions, e.g., ice sheet and glaciers mass change and nonsteric sea level rise monitoring, detection of extreme hydrological events, such as floods or droughts, and sudden huge earthquakes. GRACE solution data processing is also in constant evolution. The recent advances will contribute to a better interpretation of water mass in the fluid envelopes of our planet. Recent works propose innovative methods for improving spatial resolution, i.e., development of “mascons”; temporal resolution, e.g., daily solutions by combined GRACE/hydrological model Kalman filtering; and accuracy using combination of GRACE products to reduce noise. Furthermore, the launch in 2018 of the new mission GRACE-FO that assures the continuity of space gravimetry offers new insights for global/regional water mass transfer studies.

We invite you to contribute in this satellite gravimetry-related topic by including your latest results concerning GRACE data processing, methodologies, and signal analysis in the context of establishing mass balances of large continental drainage river and ice field systems.

Dr. Lucia Seoane
Dr. Guillaume Ramillien
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Satellite gravimetry
  • GRACE
  • Global hydrology
  • Cryosphere
  • Sea level
  • Climate change

Published Papers (15 papers)

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22 pages, 3665 KiB  
Article
Inter-Annual Variability in the Antarctic Ice Sheets Using Geodetic Observations and a Climate Model
by Athul Kaitheri, Anthony Mémin and Frédérique Rémy
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(11), 2199; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs13112199 - 04 Jun 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3568
Abstract
Quantifying the mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS), and the resulting sea level rise, requires an understanding of inter-annual variability and associated causal mechanisms. Very few studies have been exploring the influence of climate anomalies on the AIS and only a [...] Read more.
Quantifying the mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS), and the resulting sea level rise, requires an understanding of inter-annual variability and associated causal mechanisms. Very few studies have been exploring the influence of climate anomalies on the AIS and only a vague estimate of its impact is available. Changes to the ice sheet are quantified using observations from space-borne altimetry and gravimetry missions. We use data from Envisat (2002 to 2010) and Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) (2002 to 2016) missions to estimate monthly elevation changes and mass changes, respectively. Similar estimates of the changes are made using weather variables (surface mass balance (SMB) and temperature) from a regional climate model (RACMO2.3p2) as inputs to a firn compaction (FC) model. Elevation changes estimated from different techniques are in good agreement with each other across the AIS especially in West Antarctica, Antarctic Peninsula, and along the coasts of East Antarctica. Inter-annual height change patterns are then extracted using for the first time an empirical mode decomposition followed by a principal component analysis to investigate for influences of climate anomalies on the AIS. Investigating the inter-annual signals in these regions revealed a sub-4-year periodic signal in the height change patterns. El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a climate anomaly that alters, among other parameters, moisture transport, sea surface temperature, precipitation, in and around the AIS at similar frequency by alternating between warm and cold conditions. This periodic behavior in the height change patterns is altered in the Antarctic Pacific (AP) sector, possibly by the influence of multiple climate drivers, like the Amundsen Sea Low (ASL) and the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). Height change anomaly also appears to traverse eastwards from Coats Land to Pine Island Glacier (PIG) regions passing through Dronning Maud Land (DML) and Wilkes Land (WL) in 6 to 8 years. This is indicative of climate anomaly traversal due to the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave (ACW). Altogether, inter-annual variability in the SMB of the AIS is found to be modulated by multiple competing climate anomalies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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18 pages, 4181 KiB  
Article
Geophysical Signal Detection in the Earth’s Oblateness Variation and Its Climate-Driven Source Analysis
by Hongjuan Yu, Qiujie Chen, Yu Sun and Krzysztof Sosnica
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(10), 2004; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs13102004 - 20 May 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2475
Abstract
This study analyzes the geophysical signals in J2 time series from 1976 to 2020 by using singular spectrum analysis (SSA) and the Lomb-Scargle (L-S) periodogram for the first time. The results of SSA indicate that the secular trend is characterized by a [...] Read more.
This study analyzes the geophysical signals in J2 time series from 1976 to 2020 by using singular spectrum analysis (SSA) and the Lomb-Scargle (L-S) periodogram for the first time. The results of SSA indicate that the secular trend is characterized by a superposition of the secular linear decrease with a rate of approximately (−5.80 ± 0.08) × 10−11/yr and an obvious quadratic rate of (2.38 ± 0.02) × 10−13/yr2. Besides, the annual, semi-annual, and 10.6-year signals with determining for the first time its amplitude of 5.01 × 10−11, are also detected by SSA, where their stochastic behavior can be maintained to the greatest extent. The 18.6-year signal cannot be detected by SSA even when the window size of 18.6 years was selected, while L-S periodogram can detect the signal of 18.6 years after removing the 18.6-year tidal theoretical value and the linear trend, proving the existence of the tidal variations of 18.6 years in the residual time series. Nevertheless, the 10.6-year signal can be found only after removing the secular trend. This fact suggests that the advantages of different methods used will lead to different sensitivity to the particular signals hard to be detected. Finally, the reconstructed ΔJ2 time series through the sum of the climate-driven contributions from glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), Antarctic ice sheets (ANT), atmosphere (ATM), continental glaciers (GLA), Greenland ice sheets (GRE), ocean bottom pressure (OBP), and terrestrial water storage (TWS) by using GRACE gravity field solution and geophysical models agrees very well with that of the observed ΔJ2 from SLR in terms of the amplitude and phase. About 81.5% of observed ΔJ2 can be explained by the reconstructed value. ATM, TWS, and OBP are the most significant contributing sources for seasonal signals in ΔJ2 time series, explaining up to 40.1%, 31.9%, and 26.3% of the variances of observed ΔJ2. These three components contribute to the annual and semi-annual variations of the observed ΔJ2 up to 30.1% and 1.6%, 30.8% and 1.0%, as well as 25.4% and 0.7%, respectively. GRE, ANT, and GLA have ~3 to ~7-year periodic fluctuations and a positive linear trend, excluding GIA. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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16 pages, 4319 KiB  
Article
An Innovative Slepian Approach to Invert GRACE KBRR for Localized Hydrological Information at the Sub-Basin Scale
by Guillaume Ramillien, Lucía Seoane and José Darrozes
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(9), 1824; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs13091824 - 07 May 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2423 | Correction
Abstract
GRACE spherical harmonics are well-adapted for representation of hydrological signals in river drainage basins of large size such as the Amazon or Mississippi basins. However, when one needs to study smaller drainage basins, one comes up against the low spatial resolution of the [...] Read more.
GRACE spherical harmonics are well-adapted for representation of hydrological signals in river drainage basins of large size such as the Amazon or Mississippi basins. However, when one needs to study smaller drainage basins, one comes up against the low spatial resolution of the solutions in spherical harmonics. To overcome this limitation, we propose a new approach based on Slepian functions which can reduce the energy loss by integrating information in the spatial, spectral and time domains. Another advantage of these regionally-defined functions is the reduction of the problem dimensions compared to the spherical harmonic parameters. This also induces a drastic reduction of the computational time. These Slepian functions are used to invert the GRACE satellite data to restore the water mass fluxes of different hydro-climatologic environments in Africa. We apply them to two African drainage basins chosen for their size of medium scale and their geometric specificities: the Congo river basin with a quasi-isotropic shape and the Nile river basin with an anisotropic and more complex shape. Time series of Slepian coefficients have been estimated from real along-track GRACE geopotential differences for about ten years, and these coefficients are in agreement with both the spherical harmonic solutions provided by the official centers CSR, GFZ, JPL and the GLDAS model used for validation. The Slepian function analysis highlights the water mass variations at sub-basin scales in both basins. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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23 pages, 11201 KiB  
Article
Earth’s Time-Variable Gravity from GRACE Follow-On K-Band Range-Rates and Pseudo-Observed Orbits
by Igor Koch, Mathias Duwe, Jakob Flury and Akbar Shabanloui
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(9), 1766; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs13091766 - 01 May 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2799
Abstract
During its science phase from 2002–2017, the low-low satellite-to-satellite tracking mission Gravity Field Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) provided an insight into Earth’s time-variable gravity (TVG). The unprecedented quality of gravity field solutions from GRACE sensor data improved the understanding of mass changes [...] Read more.
During its science phase from 2002–2017, the low-low satellite-to-satellite tracking mission Gravity Field Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) provided an insight into Earth’s time-variable gravity (TVG). The unprecedented quality of gravity field solutions from GRACE sensor data improved the understanding of mass changes in Earth’s system considerably. Monthly gravity field solutions as the main products of the GRACE mission, published by several analysis centers (ACs) from Europe, USA and China, became indispensable products for quantifying terrestrial water storage, ice sheet mass balance and sea level change. The successor mission GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) was launched in May 2018 and proceeds observing Earth’s TVG. The Institute of Geodesy (IfE) at Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) is one of the most recent ACs. The purpose of this article is to give a detailed insight into the gravity field recovery processing strategy applied at LUH; to compare the obtained gravity field results to the gravity field solutions of other established ACs; and to compare the GRACE-FO performance to that of the preceding GRACE mission in terms of post-fit residuals. We use the in-house-developed MATLAB-based GRACE-SIGMA software to compute unconstrained solutions based on the generalized orbit determination of 3 h arcs. K-band range-rates (KBRR) and kinematic orbits are used as (pseudo)-observations. A comparison of the obtained solutions to the results of the GRACE-FO Science Data System (SDS) and Combination Service for Time-variable Gravity Fields (COST-G) ACs, reveals a competitive quality of our solutions. While the spectral and spatial noise levels slightly differ, the signal content of the solutions is similar among all ACs. The carried out comparison of GRACE and GRACE-FO KBRR post-fit residuals highlights an improvement of the GRACE-FO K-band ranging system performance. The overall amplitude of GRACE-FO post-fit residuals is about three times smaller, compared to GRACE. GRACE-FO post-fit residuals show less systematics, compared to GRACE. Nevertheless, the power spectral density of GRACE-FO and GRACE post-fit residuals is dominated by similar spikes located at multiples of the orbital and daily frequencies. To our knowledge, the detailed origin of these spikes and their influence on the gravity field recovery quality were not addressed in any study so far and therefore deserve further attention in the future. Presented results are based on 29 monthly gravity field solutions from June 2018 until December 2020. The regularly updated LUH-GRACE-FO-2020 time series of monthly gravity field solutions can be found on the website of the International Centre for Global Earth Models (ICGEM) and in LUH’s research data repository. These operationally published products complement the time series of the already established ACs and allow for a continuous and independent assessment of mass changes in Earth’s system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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25 pages, 2053 KiB  
Article
Antarctic Ice Mass Change Products from GRACE/GRACE-FO Using Tailored Sensitivity Kernels
by Andreas Groh and Martin Horwath
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(9), 1736; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs13091736 - 29 Apr 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3968
Abstract
We derived gravimetric mass change products, i.e., gridded and basin-averaged mass changes, for the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) from time-variable gravity-field solutions acquired by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission and its successor GRACE-FO, covering more than 18 years. For this [...] Read more.
We derived gravimetric mass change products, i.e., gridded and basin-averaged mass changes, for the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) from time-variable gravity-field solutions acquired by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission and its successor GRACE-FO, covering more than 18 years. For this purpose, tailored sensitivity kernels (TSKs) were generated for the application in a regional integration approach. The TSKs were inferred in a formal optimization approach minimizing the sum of both propagated mission errors and leakage errors. We accounted for mission errors by means of an empirical error covariance model, while assumptions on signal variances of potential sources of leakage were used to minimize leakage errors. To identify the optimal parameters to be used in the TSK generation, we assessed a set of TSKs by quantifying signal leakage from the processing of synthetic data and by inferring the noise level of the derived basin products. The finally selected TSKs were used to calculate mass change products from GRACE/GRACE-FO Level-2 spherical harmonic solutions covering 2002-04 to 2020-07. These products were compared to external data sets from satellite altimetry and the input–output method. For the period under investigation, the mass balance of the AIS was quantified to be −90.9±43.5 Gt a−1, corresponding to a mean sea-level rise of 0.25±0.12 mm a−1. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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19 pages, 21412 KiB  
Article
Influence of the Low-Frequency Error of the Residual Orbit on Recovering Time-Variable Gravity Field from the Satellite-To-Satellite Tracking Mission
by Lei Liang, Jinhai Yu, Changqing Wang, Min Zhong, Wei Feng, Xiaoyun Wan, Wei Chen and Yihao Yan
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(6), 1118; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs13061118 - 15 Mar 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1736
Abstract
When using the dynamic approach to recover the time-variable gravity field, the reference orbit generated by the perturbation model and the non-conservative force observed from the accelerometer should be introduced at first, and then the observation equations of the residual orbit and the [...] Read more.
When using the dynamic approach to recover the time-variable gravity field, the reference orbit generated by the perturbation model and the non-conservative force observed from the accelerometer should be introduced at first, and then the observation equations of the residual orbit and the residual range rate are established. This introduces a perturbation model error and instrument noise. Thus, there are low-frequency errors in the residual orbit and the residual range rate. Currently, most studies only focus on the low-frequency error of the residual range rate, neglecting the influence of the low-frequency error in the residual orbit. Therefore, under the condition of the perturbation model error and instrument noise including the constant term and 1CPR term, the low-frequency error formulas of the residual orbit and residual range rate are derived according to the characteristics of the solution of the Hill equation. Then, the influence of the low-frequency error on the residuals is analyzed by using the simulation and the real data processing respectively. In the simulation and real data processing, the accuracy of the recovered gravity field can maintain a good consistency for different arc lengths by removing the low-frequency error in the residual orbit. Finally, the time-variable gravity field model UCAS-IGG (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences-Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics) was solved from January 2005 to February 2010 by removing the low-frequency error of the residual orbit and residual range rate. Compared with the official institutions, the UCAS-IGG presents a good consistency in the estimating time-variable gravity field signal. This study demonstrates how the effect of the low-frequency error of the residual orbit should be taken into consideration when the longer arc length is used to recover a time-variable gravity field. Using a long arc length can reduce the variables of the initial state and recover the influence of the small force. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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15 pages, 5448 KiB  
Article
Groundwater Depletion Signals in the Beqaa Plain, Lebanon: Evidence from GRACE and Sentinel-1 Data
by Elias C. Massoud, Zhen Liu, Amin Shaban and Mhamad El Hage
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(5), 915; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs13050915 - 01 Mar 2021
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4277
Abstract
Regions with high productivity of agriculture, such as the Beqaa Plain, Lebanon, often rely on groundwater supplies for irrigation demand. Recent reports have indicated that groundwater consumption in this region has been unsustainable, and quantifying rates of groundwater depletion has remained a challenge. [...] Read more.
Regions with high productivity of agriculture, such as the Beqaa Plain, Lebanon, often rely on groundwater supplies for irrigation demand. Recent reports have indicated that groundwater consumption in this region has been unsustainable, and quantifying rates of groundwater depletion has remained a challenge. Here, we utilize 15 years of data (June 2002–April 2017) from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission to show Total Water Storage (TWS) changes in Lebanon’s Beqaa Plain. We then obtain complimentary information on various hydrologic cycle variables, such as soil moisture storage, snow water equivalent, and canopy water storage from the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) model, and surface water data from the largest body of water in this region, the Qaraaoun Reservoir, to disentangle the TWS signal and calculate groundwater storage changes. After combining the information from the remaining hydrologic cycle variables, we determine that the majority of the losses in TWS are due to groundwater depletion in the Beqaa Plain. Results show that the rate of groundwater storage change in the West Beqaa is nearly +0.08 cm/year, in the Rashaya District is −0.01 cm/year, and in the Zahle District the level of depletion is roughly −1.10 cm/year. Results are confirmed using Sentinel-1 interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data, which provide high-precision measurements of land subsidence changes caused by intense groundwater usage. Furthermore, data from local monitoring wells are utilized to further showcase the significant drop in groundwater level that is occurring through much of the region. For monitoring groundwater storage changes, our recommendation is to combine various data sources, and in areas where groundwater measurements are lacking, we especially recommend the use of data from remote sensing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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18 pages, 4492 KiB  
Article
The Assessment of Hydrologic- and Flood-Induced Land Deformation in Data-Sparse Regions Using GRACE/GRACE-FO Data Assimilation
by Natthachet Tangdamrongsub and Michal Šprlák
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(2), 235; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs13020235 - 12 Jan 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3363
Abstract
The vertical motion of the Earth’s surface is dominated by the hydrologic cycle on a seasonal scale. Accurate land deformation measurements can provide constructive insight into the regional geophysical process. Although the Global Positioning System (GPS) delivers relatively accurate measurements, GPS networks are [...] Read more.
The vertical motion of the Earth’s surface is dominated by the hydrologic cycle on a seasonal scale. Accurate land deformation measurements can provide constructive insight into the regional geophysical process. Although the Global Positioning System (GPS) delivers relatively accurate measurements, GPS networks are not uniformly distributed across the globe, posing a challenge to obtaining accurate deformation information in data-sparse regions, e.g., Central South-East Asia (CSEA). Model simulations and gravity data (from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO)) have been successfully used to improve the spatial coverage. While combining model estimates and GRACE/GRACE-FO data via the GRACE/GRACE-FO data assimilation (DA) framework can potentially improve the accuracy and resolution of deformation estimates, the approach has rarely been considered or investigated thus far. This study assesses the performance of vertical displacement estimates from GRACE/GRACE-FO, the PCRaster Global Water Balance (PCR-GLOBWB) hydrology model, and the GRACE/GRACE-FO DA approach (assimilating GRACE/GRACE-FO into PCR-GLOBWB) in CSEA, where measurements from six GPS sites are available for validation. The results show that GRACE/GRACE-FO, PCR-GLOBWB, and GRACE/GRACE-FO DA accurately capture regional-scale hydrologic- and flood-induced vertical displacements, with the correlation value and RMS reduction relative to GPS measurements up to 0.89 and 53%, respectively. The analyses also confirm the GRACE/GRACE-FO DA’s effectiveness in providing vertical displacement estimates consistent with GRACE/GRACE-FO data while maintaining high-spatial details of the PCR-GLOBWB model, highlighting the benefits of GRACE/GRACE-FO DA in data-sparse regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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14 pages, 3636 KiB  
Article
Increased Low Degree Spherical Harmonic Influences on Polar Ice Sheet Mass Change Derived from GRACE Mission
by Xiaoli Su, Junyi Guo, C. K. Shum, Zhicai Luo and Yu Zhang
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(24), 4178; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs12244178 - 20 Dec 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2554
Abstract
Replacing estimates of C20 from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) monthly gravity field solutions by those from satellite laser ranging (SLR) data and including degree one terms has become a standard procedure for proper science applications in the satellite gravimetry [...] Read more.
Replacing estimates of C20 from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) monthly gravity field solutions by those from satellite laser ranging (SLR) data and including degree one terms has become a standard procedure for proper science applications in the satellite gravimetry community. Here, we assess the impact of degree one terms, SLR-based C20 and C30 estimates on GRACE-derived polar ice sheet mass variations. We report that degree one terms recommended for GRACE Release 06 (RL06) data have an impact of 2.5 times more than those for GRACE RL05 data on the mass trend estimates over the Greenland and the Antarctic ice sheets. The latest recommended C20 solutions in GRACE Technical Note 14 (TN14) affect the mass trend estimates of ice sheets in absolute value by more than 50%, as compared to those in TN11 and TN07. The SLR-based C30 replacement has some impact on the Antarctic ice sheet mass variations, mainly depending on the length of the study period. This study emphasizes that reliable solutions of low degree spherical harmonics are crucial for accurately deriving ice sheet mass balance from satellite gravimetry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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21 pages, 3674 KiB  
Article
Using GRACE Data to Study the Impact of Snow and Rainfall on Terrestrial Water Storage in Northeast China
by An Qian, Shuang Yi, Le Chang, Guangtong Sun and Xiaoyang Liu
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(24), 4166; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs12244166 - 19 Dec 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3068
Abstract
Water resources are important for agricultural, industrial, and urban development. In this paper, we analyzed the influence of rainfall and snowfall on variations in terrestrial water storage (TWS) in Northeast China from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) gravity satellite data, GlobSnow snow [...] Read more.
Water resources are important for agricultural, industrial, and urban development. In this paper, we analyzed the influence of rainfall and snowfall on variations in terrestrial water storage (TWS) in Northeast China from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) gravity satellite data, GlobSnow snow water equivalent product, and ERA5-land monthly total precipitation, snowfall, and snow depth data. This study revealed the main composition and variation characteristics of TWS in Northeast China. We found that GRACE provided an effective method for monitoring large areas of stable seasonal snow cover and variations in TWS in Northeast China at both seasonal and interannual scales. On the seasonal scale, although summer rainfall was 10 times greater than winter snowfall, the terrestrial water storage in Northeast China peaked in winter, and summer rainfall brought about only a sub-peak, 1 month later than the maximum rainfall. On the interannual scale, TWS in Northeast China was controlled by rainfall. The correlation analysis results revealed that the annual fluctuations of TWS and rainfall in Northeast China appear to be influenced by ENSO (EI Niño–Southern Oscillation) events with a lag of 2–3 years. In addition, this study proposed a reconstruction model for the interannual variation in TWS in Northeast China from 2003 to 2016 on the basis of the contemporary terrestrial water storage and rainfall data. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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26 pages, 7432 KiB  
Article
Spatio-Temporal Evaluation of Water Storage Trends from Hydrological Models over Australia Using GRACE Mascon Solutions
by Xinchun Yang, Siyuan Tian, Wei Feng, Jiangjun Ran, Wei You, Zhongshan Jiang and Xiaoying Gong
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(21), 3578; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs12213578 - 31 Oct 2020
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 3389
Abstract
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data have been extensively used to evaluate the total terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSA) from hydrological models. However, which individual water storage components (i.e., soil moisture storage anomalies (SMSA) or groundwater water storage anomalies (GWSA)) cause [...] Read more.
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data have been extensively used to evaluate the total terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSA) from hydrological models. However, which individual water storage components (i.e., soil moisture storage anomalies (SMSA) or groundwater water storage anomalies (GWSA)) cause the discrepancies in TWSA between GRACE and hydrological models have not been thoroughly investigated or quantified. In this study, we applied GRACE mass concentration block (mascon) solutions to evaluate the spatio-temporal TWSA trends (2003–2014) from seven prevailing hydrological models (i.e., Noah-3.6, Catchment Land Surface Model (CLSM-F2.5), Variable Infiltration Capacity macroscale model (VIC-4.1.2), Water—Global Assessment and Prognosis (WaterGAP-2.2d), PCRaster Global Water Balance (PCR-GLOBWB-2), Community Land Model (CLM-4.5), and Australian Water Resources Assessment Landscape model (AWRA-L v6)) in Australia and, more importantly, identified which individual water storage components lead to the differences in TWSA trends between GRACE and hydrological models. The results showed that all of the hydrological models employed in this study, except for CLM-4.5 model, underestimated the GRACE-derived TWSA trends. These underestimations can be divided into three categories: (1) ignoring GWSA, e.g., Noah-3.6 and VIC-4.1.2 models; (2) underrating both SMSA and GWSA, e.g., CLSM-F2.5, WaterGAP-2.2d, and PCR-GLOBWB-2 models; (3) deficiently modeling GWSA, e.g., AWRA-L v6 model. In comparison, CLM-4.5 model yielded the best agreement with GRACE but overstated the GRACE-derived TWSA trends due to the overestimation of GWSA. Our results underscore that GRACE mascon solutions can be used as a valuable and efficient validation dataset to evaluate the spatio-temporal performance of hydrological models. Confirming which individual water storage components result in the discrepancies in TWSA between GRACE and hydrological models can better assist in further hydrological model development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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28 pages, 9106 KiB  
Article
Preliminary Estimation and Validation of Polar Motion Excitation from Different Types of the GRACE and GRACE Follow-On Missions Data
by Justyna Śliwińska, Małgorzata Wińska and Jolanta Nastula
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(21), 3490; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs12213490 - 23 Oct 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2018
Abstract
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission has provided global observations of temporal variations in the gravity field resulting from mass redistribution at the surface and within the Earth for the period 2002–2017. Although GRACE satellites are not able to realistically detect [...] Read more.
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission has provided global observations of temporal variations in the gravity field resulting from mass redistribution at the surface and within the Earth for the period 2002–2017. Although GRACE satellites are not able to realistically detect the second zonal parameter (ΔC20) of geopotential associated with the flattening of the Earth, they can accurately determine variations in degree-2 order-1 (ΔC21, ΔS21) coefficients that are proportional to variations in polar motion. Therefore, GRACE measurements are commonly exploited to interpret polar motion changes due to variations in the global mass redistribution, especially in the continental hydrosphere and cryosphere. Such impacts are usually examined by computing the so-called hydrological polar motion excitation (HAM) and cryospheric polar motion excitation (CAM), often analyzed together as HAM/CAM. The great success of the GRACE mission and the scientific robustness of its data contributed to the launch of its successor, GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO), which began in May 2018 and continues to the present. This study presents the first estimates of HAM/CAM computed from GRACE-FO data provided by three data centers: Center for Space Research (CSR), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ). In this paper, the data series is computed using different types of GRACE/GRACE-FO data: ΔC21, ΔS21 coefficients of geopotential, gridded terrestrial water storage anomalies, and mascon solutions. We compare and evaluate different methods of HAM/CAM estimation and examine the compatibility between CSR, JPL, and GFZ data. We also validate different HAM/CAM estimations using precise geodetic measurements and geophysical models. Analysis of data from the first 19 months of GRACE-FO shows that the consistency between GRACE-FO-based HAM/CAM and observed hydrological/cryospheric signals in polar motion is similar to the consistency obtained for the initial period of the GRACE mission, worse than the consistency received for the best GRACE period, and higher than the consistency obtained for the terminal phase of the GRACE mission. In general, the current quality of HAM/CAM from GRACE Follow-On meets expectations. In the following months, after full calibration of the instruments, this accuracy is expected to increase. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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34 pages, 4813 KiB  
Article
An Iterative ICA-Based Reconstruction Method to Produce Consistent Time-Variable Total Water Storage Fields Using GRACE and Swarm Satellite Data
by Ehsan Forootan, Maike Schumacher, Nooshin Mehrnegar, Aleš Bezděk, Matthieu J. Talpe, Saeed Farzaneh, Chaoyang Zhang, Yu Zhang and C. K. Shum
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(10), 1639; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs12101639 - 20 May 2020
Cited by 36 | Viewed by 4933
Abstract
Observing global terrestrial water storage changes (TWSCs) from (inter-)seasonal to (multi-)decade time-scales is very important to understand the Earth as a system under natural and anthropogenic climate change. The primary goal of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission (2002–2017) and [...] Read more.
Observing global terrestrial water storage changes (TWSCs) from (inter-)seasonal to (multi-)decade time-scales is very important to understand the Earth as a system under natural and anthropogenic climate change. The primary goal of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission (2002–2017) and its follow-on mission (GRACE-FO, 2018–onward) is to provide time-variable gravity fields, which can be converted to TWSCs with ∼ 300 km spatial resolution; however, the one year data gap between GRACE and GRACE-FO represents a critical discontinuity, which cannot be replaced by alternative data or model with the same quality. To fill this gap, we applied time-variable gravity fields (2013–onward) from the Swarm Earth explorer mission with low spatial resolution of ∼ 1500 km. A novel iterative reconstruction approach was formulated based on the independent component analysis (ICA) that combines the GRACE and Swarm fields. The reconstructed TWSC fields of 2003–2018 were compared with a commonly applied reconstruction technique and GRACE-FO TWSC fields, whose results indicate a considerable noise reduction and long-term consistency improvement of the iterative ICA reconstruction technique. They were applied to evaluate trends and seasonal mass changes (of 2003–2018) within the world’s 33 largest river basins. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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20 pages, 4409 KiB  
Article
Recovery of Rapid Water Mass Changes (RWMC) by Kalman Filtering of GRACE Observations
by Guillaume Ramillien, Lucía Seoane, Maike Schumacher, Ehsan Forootan, Frédéric Frappart and José Darrozes
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(8), 1299; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs12081299 - 20 Apr 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2985
Abstract
We demonstrate a new approach to recover water mass changes from GRACE satellite data at a daily temporal resolution. Such a product can be beneficial in monitoring extreme weather events that last a few days and are missing by conventional monthly GRACE data. [...] Read more.
We demonstrate a new approach to recover water mass changes from GRACE satellite data at a daily temporal resolution. Such a product can be beneficial in monitoring extreme weather events that last a few days and are missing by conventional monthly GRACE data. The determination of the distribution of these water mass sources over networks of juxtaposed triangular tiles was made using Kalman Filtering (KF) of daily GRACE geopotential difference observations that were reduced for isolating the continental hydrology contribution of the measured gravity field. Geopotential differences were obtained from the along-track K-Band Range Rate (KBRR) measurements according to the method of energy integral. The recovery approach was validated by inverting synthetic GRACE geopotential differences simulated using GLDAS/WGHM global hydrology model outputs. Series of daily regional and global KF solutions were estimated from real GRACE KBRR data for the period 2003–2012. They provide a realistic description of hydrological fluxes at monthly time scales, which are consistent with classical spherical harmonics and mascons solutions provided by the GRACE official centers but also give an intra-month/daily continuity of these variations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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9 pages, 1845 KiB  
Letter
GRACE—Gravity Data for Understanding the Deep Earth’s Interior
by Mioara Mandea, Véronique Dehant and Anny Cazenave
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(24), 4186; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs12244186 - 21 Dec 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3105
Abstract
While the main causes of the temporal gravity variations observed by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) space mission result from water mass redistributions occurring at the surface of the Earth in response to climatic and anthropogenic forces (e.g., changes in land [...] Read more.
While the main causes of the temporal gravity variations observed by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) space mission result from water mass redistributions occurring at the surface of the Earth in response to climatic and anthropogenic forces (e.g., changes in land hydrology, ocean mass, and mass of glaciers and ice sheets), solid Earth’s mass redistributions were also recorded by these observations. This is the case, in particular, for the glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) or the viscous response of the mantle to the last deglaciation. However, it has only recently been shown that the gravity data also contain the signature of flows inside the outer core and their effects on the core–mantle boundary (CMB). Detecting deep Earth’s processes in GRACE observations offers an exciting opportunity to provide additional insight into the dynamics of the core–mantle interface. Here, we present one aspect of the GRACEFUL (GRavimetry, mAgnetism and CorE Flow) project, i.e., the possibility to use gravity field data for understanding the dynamic processes inside the fluid core and core–mantle boundary of the Earth, beside that offered by the geomagnetic field variations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Geosciences)
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