Comparison of GRACE with in situ hydrological measurement data shows storage depletion in Hai River basin, Northern China

Abstract

Water storage change has implications not only for the hydrological cycle, but also for sustainable water resource management in especially semi-arid river basins. Satellite/remote sensing techniques have gained increasing application in moni toring basin and regional hydrological processes in recent decades. In this study, the latest version of GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) is used to estimate total water storage change in the Hai River basin (HRB) of Northern China for the period January 2003 to December 2006. Time-series comparisons show a good agreement between the esti mated storage change from the GRACE satellite data and in situ hydrological measurement data at especially the seasonal cycle with R = 0.82 and RMSE = 17.25 mm. The good agreement suggests that GRACE detects storage change in the 318 866 km2 HRB study area. It also implies that the in situ hydrological measurements of soil moisture and groundwater sufficiently characterise storage change in the semi-arid river basin.

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