An improved rescaling algorithm for estimating groundwater depletion rates using the GRACE satellite

ABSTRACT

The Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiments (GRACE) satellite mission has been instrumental in estimating large-scale groundwater storage changes across the globe. GRACE observations include significant errors, so pre-processing is normally required before the data are used. In particular, the terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSA) are usually filtered to reduce the effects of measurement errors and then rescaled to reduce the unintended impacts of the filtering. The scaling is typically selected to maximize the Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) between the rescaled filtered TWSA and the original TWSA from large-scale hydrologic models that represent an incomplete water budget. The objectives of this study are as follows (1) to evaluate the use of NSE in the current GRACE rescaling methodology, (2) develop an improved methodology that incorporates a complete regional water budget, and (3) examine the impacts of the rescaling methodology on regional assessments of groundwater depletion. To evaluate the use of NSE as a performance metric, we compare it to an analytical solution that restores the relative variability between the rescaled filtered and original GRACE TWSA series. The relative variability approach produces more reliable estimates when comparing to TWSA estimates from global positioning systems (GPS) for the Sacramento and San Joaquin River basins in California. Rescaling the complete regional water budget results in a larger scale factor than the scale factor from the large-scale hydrologic model outputs, and the new TWSA results are more consistent with those from GPS. The large scale factor also suggests that regional groundwater depletion is more severe than previously estimated.

KEYWORDS:

• GRACE
• TWSA
• Rescaling
• Groundwater
• Depletion

Acknowledgements

The authors thank two anonymous referees for their suggestions for improving this manuscript. Funding for this research was provided by the Foreign Fulbright Scholarship Program, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the United States Department of State, and the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture, Hatch grant 1000065-COL00797.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data used to generate Figures 2 to 4 can be downloaded from http://dx.doi.org/10.25675/10217/235434

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture [Hatch grant 1000065-COL00797]; Foreign Fulbright Scholarship Program, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the United States Department of State.