Water storage variations in the Poyang Lake Basin estimated from GRACE and satellite altimetry

Abstract

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission provides a unique opportunity to quantitatively study terrestrial water storage (TWS) variations. In this paper, the terrestrial water storage variations in the Poyang Lake Basin are recovered from the GRACE gravity data from January 2003 to March 2014 and compared with the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) hydrological models and satellite altimetry. Furthermore, the impact of soil moisture content from GLDAS and rainfall from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) on TWS variations are investigated. Our results indicate that the TWS variations from GRACE, GLDAS and satellite altimetry have a general consistency. The TWS trends in the Poyang Lake Basin determined from GRACE, GLDAS and satellite altimetry are increasing at 0.0141 km3/a, 0.0328 km3/a and 0.0238 km3/a, respectively during the investigated time period. The TWS is governed mainly by the soil moisture content and dominated primarily by the precipitation but also modulated by the flood season of the Yangtze River as well as the lake and river exchange water.

Keywords

• Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE)
• Satellite altimetry
• Terrestrial water storage variations
• Poyang Lake Basin