Global partitioning of runoff generation mechanisms using remote sensing data

Abstract

A set of complex processes contribute to generate river runoff, which in the hydrological sciences are typically divided into two major categories: surface runoff, sometimes called Hortonian flow, and baseflow-driven runoff or Dunne flow. In this study, we examine the covariance of global satellite-based surface water inundation (SWI) observations with two remotely sensed hydrological variables, precipitation, and terrestrial water storage, to better understand how apparent runoff generation responds to these two dominant forcing mechanisms in different regions of the world. Terrestrial water storage observations come from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, while precipitation comes from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) combined product, and surface inundation levels from the NASA Surface WAter Microwave Product Series (SWAMPS) product. We evaluate the statistical relationship between surface water inundation, total water storage anomalies (TWS; TWSAs), and precipitation values under different time lag and quality control adjustments between the data products. We find that the global estimation of surface inundation improves when considering a quality control threshold of 50 % reliability for the SWAMPS data and after applying time lags ranging from 1 to 5 months. Precipitation and total water storage equally control the majority of surface inundation developments across the globe. The model tends to underestimate and overestimate at locations with high interannual variability and with low inundation measurements, respectively.