Articles | Volume 21, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-821-2017
© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-821-2017
© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
10 Feb 2017
Research article |
| 10 Feb 2017
Validation of terrestrial water storage variations as simulated by different global numerical models with GRACE satellite observations
Liangjing Zhang
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Henryk Dobslaw
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Tobias Stacke
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
Andreas Güntner
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Robert Dill
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Maik Thomas
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Institute of Meteorology, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 2409–2425, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-2409-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-2409-2025, 2025
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Global water models contribute to the evaluation of important natural and societal issues but are – as all models – simplified representation of reality. So, there are many ways to calculate the water fluxes and storages. This paper presents a visualization of 16 global water models using a standardized visualization and the pathway towards this common understanding. Next to academic education purposes, we envisage that these diagrams will help researchers, model developers, and data users.
Ehsan Sharifi, Julian Haas, Eva Börgens, Henryk Dobslaw, and Andreas Güntner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1514, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1514, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS).
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This study presents a method to make the spatial resolution of global Water Storage Compartments (WSCs) compatible with terrestrial water storage (TWS) data from GRACE missions. The method compares the spatial structure of the WSCs and TWS by considering the correlation between neighboring grid cells. An isotropic Gaussian filter with an optimal filter width of 250 km is found to be the most suitable, ensuring compatibility for consistent comparison with GRACE data in hydrological applications.
Christoph Dahle, Eva Boergens, Ingo Sasgen, Thorben Döhne, Sven Reißland, Henryk Dobslaw, Volker Klemann, Michael Murböck, Rolf König, Robert Dill, Mike Sips, Ulrike Sylla, Andreas Groh, Martin Horwath, and Frank Flechtner
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 611–631, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-611-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-611-2025, 2025
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GRACE and GRACE-FO are unique observing systems to quantify mass changes at the Earth’s surface from space. Time series of these mass changes are of high value for various applications, e.g., in hydrology, glaciology, and oceanography. GravIS (Gravity Information Service) provides easy access to user-friendly, regularly updated mass anomaly products. The portal visualizes and describes these data, aiming to highlight their significance for understanding changes in the climate system.
Howlader Mohammad Mehedi Hasan, Petra Döll, Seyed-Mohammad Hosseini-Moghari, Fabrice Papa, and Andreas Güntner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 567–596, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-567-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-567-2025, 2025
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We calibrate a global hydrological model using multiple observations to analyse the benefits and trade-offs of multi-variable calibration. We found such an approach to be very important for understanding the real-world system. However, some observations are very essential to the system, in particular, streamflow. We also showed uncertainties in the calibration results, which are often useful for making informed decisions. We emphasize considering observation uncertainty in model calibration.
Alberto Elizalde, Gibran Romero-Mujalli, Tobias Stacke, and Stefan Hagemann
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3645, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3645, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Earth System Dynamics (ESD).
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This study examines phosphorus land-to-sea transport in Europe, exploring changes over time and predicting future trends under various scenarios. It integrates human and environmental factors, offering a comprehensive analysis. Our findings show how global warming-induced rainfall patterns affect phosphorus levels. While pollution reduction policies are helpful, population growth, land-use changes, and increased rainfall could lead to higher phosphorus levels in the future.
Linus Shihora, Torge Martin, Anna Christina Hans, Rebecca Hummels, Michael Schindelegger, and Henryk Dobslaw
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3660, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3660, 2024
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The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a major part of the ocean circulation. Satellite gravimetry missions, like GRACE, which measure changes in Earth's mass distribution, could help monitor changes in the AMOC by detecting variations in ocean bottom pressure. To help asses if future satellite missions could detect these changes, we use ocean model simulation data to assess their connection. Additionally, we create a synthetic dataset future satellite mission simulations.
Eva Boergens, Andreas Güntner, Mike Sips, Christian Schwatke, and Henryk Dobslaw
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4733–4754, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4733-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4733-2024, 2024
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The satellites GRACE and GRACE-FO observe continental terrestrial water storage (TWS) changes. With over 20 years of data, we can look into long-term variations in the East Africa Rift region. We focus on analysing the interannual TWS variations compared to meteorological data and observations of the water storage compartments. We found strong influences of natural precipitation variability and human actions over Lake Victoria's water level.
Daniel Rasche, Theresa Blume, and Andreas Güntner
SOIL, 10, 655–677, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-655-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-655-2024, 2024
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Soil moisture measurements at the field scale are highly beneficial for numerous (soil) hydrological applications. Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) allows for the non-invasive monitoring of field-scale soil moisture across several hectares but only for the first few tens of centimetres of the soil. In this study, we modify and test a simple modeling approach to extrapolate CRNS-derived surface soil moisture information down to 450 cm depth and compare calibrated and uncalibrated model results.
Çağatay Çakan, M. Tuğrul Yılmaz, Henryk Dobslaw, E. Sinem Ince, Fatih Evrendilek, Christoph Förste, and Ali Levent Yağcı
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2616, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2616, 2024
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This study evaluates the accuracy of GPCC and GPCP precipitation products by estimating hydrological drought recovery time (DRT) using satellite gravimetry data. Findings show that DRT estimates for GPCC and GPCP are similar, while JPL mascon gives longer DRT than G3P. Results show that G3P provides more consistent DRT estimates than JPL mascon across climate zones. These results enhance understanding of precipitation and water storage, crucial for meteorological and hydrological research.
Petra Döll, Howlader Mohammad Mehedi Hasan, Kerstin Schulze, Helena Gerdener, Lara Börger, Somayeh Shadkam, Sebastian Ackermann, Seyed-Mohammad Hosseini-Moghari, Hannes Müller Schmied, Andreas Güntner, and Jürgen Kusche
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 2259–2295, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2259-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2259-2024, 2024
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Currently, global hydrological models do not benefit from observations of model output variables to reduce and quantify model output uncertainty. For the Mississippi River basin, we explored three approaches for using both streamflow and total water storage anomaly observations to adjust the parameter sets in a global hydrological model. We developed a method for considering the observation uncertainties to quantify the uncertainty of model output and provide recommendations.
Daniel Rasche, Jannis Weimar, Martin Schrön, Markus Köhli, Markus Morgner, Andreas Güntner, and Theresa Blume
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 3059–3082, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3059-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3059-2023, 2023
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We introduce passive downhole cosmic-ray neutron sensing (d-CRNS) as an approach for the non-invasive estimation of soil moisture in deeper layers of the unsaturated zone which exceed the observational window of above-ground CRNS applications. Neutron transport simulations are used to derive mathematical descriptions and transfer functions, while experimental measurements in an existing groundwater observation well illustrate the feasibility and applicability of the approach.
Maik Heistermann, Till Francke, Lena Scheiffele, Katya Dimitrova Petrova, Christian Budach, Martin Schrön, Benjamin Trost, Daniel Rasche, Andreas Güntner, Veronika Döpper, Michael Förster, Markus Köhli, Lisa Angermann, Nikolaos Antonoglou, Manuela Zude-Sasse, and Sascha E. Oswald
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3243–3262, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3243-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3243-2023, 2023
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Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) allows for the non-invasive estimation of root-zone soil water content (SWC). The signal observed by a single CRNS sensor is influenced by the SWC in a radius of around 150 m (the footprint). Here, we have put together a cluster of eight CRNS sensors with overlapping footprints at an agricultural research site in north-east Germany. That way, we hope to represent spatial SWC heterogeneity instead of retrieving just one average SWC estimate from a single sensor.
Daniel Blank, Annette Eicker, Laura Jensen, and Andreas Güntner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 2413–2435, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2413-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2413-2023, 2023
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Soil moisture (SM), a key variable of the global water cycle, is analyzed using two types of satellite observations; microwave sensors measure the top few centimeters and satellite gravimetry (GRACE) the full vertical water column. As SM can change very fast, non-standard daily GRACE data are applied for the first time for this analysis. Jointly analyzing these data gives insight into the SM dynamics at different soil depths, and time shifts indicate the infiltration time into deeper layers.
Philipp de Vrese, Goran Georgievski, Jesus Fidel Gonzalez Rouco, Dirk Notz, Tobias Stacke, Norman Julius Steinert, Stiig Wilkenskjeld, and Victor Brovkin
The Cryosphere, 17, 2095–2118, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2095-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2095-2023, 2023
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The current generation of Earth system models exhibits large inter-model differences in the simulated climate of the Arctic and subarctic zone. We used an adapted version of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) Earth System Model to show that differences in the representation of the soil hydrology in permafrost-affected regions could help explain a large part of this inter-model spread and have pronounced impacts on important elements of Earth systems as far to the south as the tropics.
Pengyang Song, Dmitry Sidorenko, Patrick Scholz, Maik Thomas, and Gerrit Lohmann
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 383–405, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-383-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-383-2023, 2023
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Tides have essential effects on the ocean and climate. Most previous research applies parameterised tidal mixing to discuss their effects in models. By comparing the effect of a tidal mixing parameterisation and tidal forcing on the ocean state, we assess the advantages and disadvantages of the two methods. Our results show that tidal mixing in the North Pacific Ocean strongly affects the global thermohaline circulation. We also list some effects that are not considered in the parameterisation.
Manuel Schlund, Birgit Hassler, Axel Lauer, Bouwe Andela, Patrick Jöckel, Rémi Kazeroni, Saskia Loosveldt Tomas, Brian Medeiros, Valeriu Predoi, Stéphane Sénési, Jérôme Servonnat, Tobias Stacke, Javier Vegas-Regidor, Klaus Zimmermann, and Veronika Eyring
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 315–333, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-315-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-315-2023, 2023
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The Earth System Model Evaluation Tool (ESMValTool) is a community diagnostics and performance metrics tool for routine evaluation of Earth system models. Originally, ESMValTool was designed to process reformatted output provided by large model intercomparison projects like the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). Here, we describe a new extension of ESMValTool that allows for reading and processing native climate model output, i.e., data that have not been reformatted before.
Maik Heistermann, Heye Bogena, Till Francke, Andreas Güntner, Jannis Jakobi, Daniel Rasche, Martin Schrön, Veronika Döpper, Benjamin Fersch, Jannis Groh, Amol Patil, Thomas Pütz, Marvin Reich, Steffen Zacharias, Carmen Zengerle, and Sascha Oswald
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 2501–2519, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2501-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2501-2022, 2022
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This paper presents a dense network of cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) to measure spatio-temporal soil moisture patterns during a 2-month campaign in the Wüstebach headwater catchment in Germany. Stationary, mobile, and airborne CRNS technology monitored the root-zone water dynamics as well as spatial heterogeneity in the 0.4 km2 area. The 15 CRNS stations were supported by a hydrogravimeter, biomass sampling, and a wireless soil sensor network to facilitate holistic hydrological analysis.
Andreas Wieser, Andreas Güntner, Peter Dietrich, Jan Handwerker, Dina Khordakova, Uta Ködel, Martin Kohler, Hannes Mollenhauer, Bernhard Mühr, Erik Nixdorf, Marvin Reich, Christian Rolf, Martin Schrön, Claudia Schütze, and Ute Weber
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2022-131, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2022-131, 2022
Preprint withdrawn
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We present an event-triggered observation concept which covers the entire process chain from heavy precipitation to flooding at the catchment scale. It combines flexible and mobile observing systems out of the fields of meteorology, hydrology and geophysics with stationary networks to capture atmospheric transport processes, heterogeneous precipitation patterns, land surface and subsurface storage processes, and runoff dynamics.
Heye Reemt Bogena, Martin Schrön, Jannis Jakobi, Patrizia Ney, Steffen Zacharias, Mie Andreasen, Roland Baatz, David Boorman, Mustafa Berk Duygu, Miguel Angel Eguibar-Galán, Benjamin Fersch, Till Franke, Josie Geris, María González Sanchis, Yann Kerr, Tobias Korf, Zalalem Mengistu, Arnaud Mialon, Paolo Nasta, Jerzy Nitychoruk, Vassilios Pisinaras, Daniel Rasche, Rafael Rosolem, Hami Said, Paul Schattan, Marek Zreda, Stefan Achleitner, Eduardo Albentosa-Hernández, Zuhal Akyürek, Theresa Blume, Antonio del Campo, Davide Canone, Katya Dimitrova-Petrova, John G. Evans, Stefano Ferraris, Félix Frances, Davide Gisolo, Andreas Güntner, Frank Herrmann, Joost Iwema, Karsten H. Jensen, Harald Kunstmann, Antonio Lidón, Majken Caroline Looms, Sascha Oswald, Andreas Panagopoulos, Amol Patil, Daniel Power, Corinna Rebmann, Nunzio Romano, Lena Scheiffele, Sonia Seneviratne, Georg Weltin, and Harry Vereecken
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 1125–1151, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1125-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1125-2022, 2022
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Monitoring of increasingly frequent droughts is a prerequisite for climate adaptation strategies. This data paper presents long-term soil moisture measurements recorded by 66 cosmic-ray neutron sensors (CRNS) operated by 24 institutions and distributed across major climate zones in Europe. Data processing followed harmonized protocols and state-of-the-art methods to generate consistent and comparable soil moisture products and to facilitate continental-scale analysis of hydrological extremes.
Tina Trautmann, Sujan Koirala, Nuno Carvalhais, Andreas Güntner, and Martin Jung
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 1089–1109, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1089-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1089-2022, 2022
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We assess the effect of how vegetation is defined in a global hydrological model on the composition of total water storage (TWS). We compare two experiments, one with globally uniform and one with vegetation parameters that vary in space and time. While both experiments are constrained against observational data, we found a drastic change in the partitioning of TWS, highlighting the important role of the interaction between groundwater–soil moisture–vegetation in understanding TWS variations.
Tobias Stacke and Stefan Hagemann
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 7795–7816, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-7795-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-7795-2021, 2021
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HydroPy is a new version of an established global hydrology model. It was rewritten from scratch and adapted to a modern object-oriented infrastructure to facilitate its future development and application. With this study, we provide a thorough documentation and evaluation of our new model. At the same time, we open our code base and publish the model's source code in a public software repository. In this way, we aim to contribute to increasing transparency and reproducibility in science.
Daniel Rasche, Markus Köhli, Martin Schrön, Theresa Blume, and Andreas Güntner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 6547–6566, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-6547-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-6547-2021, 2021
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Cosmic-ray neutron sensing provides areal average soil moisture measurements. We investigated how distinct differences in spatial soil moisture patterns influence the soil moisture estimates and present two approaches to improve the estimate of soil moisture close to the instrument by reducing the influence of soil moisture further afield. Additionally, we show that the heterogeneity of soil moisture can be assessed based on the relationship of different neutron energies.
Camelia-Eliza Telteu, Hannes Müller Schmied, Wim Thiery, Guoyong Leng, Peter Burek, Xingcai Liu, Julien Eric Stanislas Boulange, Lauren Seaby Andersen, Manolis Grillakis, Simon Newland Gosling, Yusuke Satoh, Oldrich Rakovec, Tobias Stacke, Jinfeng Chang, Niko Wanders, Harsh Lovekumar Shah, Tim Trautmann, Ganquan Mao, Naota Hanasaki, Aristeidis Koutroulis, Yadu Pokhrel, Luis Samaniego, Yoshihide Wada, Vimal Mishra, Junguo Liu, Petra Döll, Fang Zhao, Anne Gädeke, Sam S. Rabin, and Florian Herz
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 3843–3878, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3843-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3843-2021, 2021
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We analyse water storage compartments, water flows, and human water use sectors included in 16 global water models that provide simulations for the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project phase 2b. We develop a standard writing style for the model equations. We conclude that even though hydrologic processes are often based on similar equations, in the end these equations have been adjusted, or the models have used different values for specific parameters or specific variables.
Philipp de Vrese, Tobias Stacke, Thomas Kleinen, and Victor Brovkin
The Cryosphere, 15, 1097–1130, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1097-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1097-2021, 2021
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With large amounts of carbon stored in frozen soils and a highly energy-limited vegetation the Arctic is very sensitive to changes in climate. Here our simulations with the land surface model JSBACH reveal a number of offsetting factors moderating the Arctic's net response to global warming. More importantly we find that the effects of climate change may not be fully reversible on decadal timescales, leading to substantially different CH4 emissions depending on whether the Arctic warms or cools.
Benjamin Fersch, Till Francke, Maik Heistermann, Martin Schrön, Veronika Döpper, Jannis Jakobi, Gabriele Baroni, Theresa Blume, Heye Bogena, Christian Budach, Tobias Gränzig, Michael Förster, Andreas Güntner, Harrie-Jan Hendricks Franssen, Mandy Kasner, Markus Köhli, Birgit Kleinschmit, Harald Kunstmann, Amol Patil, Daniel Rasche, Lena Scheiffele, Ulrich Schmidt, Sandra Szulc-Seyfried, Jannis Weimar, Steffen Zacharias, Marek Zreda, Bernd Heber, Ralf Kiese, Vladimir Mares, Hannes Mollenhauer, Ingo Völksch, and Sascha Oswald
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2289–2309, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2289-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2289-2020, 2020
Veronika Eyring, Lisa Bock, Axel Lauer, Mattia Righi, Manuel Schlund, Bouwe Andela, Enrico Arnone, Omar Bellprat, Björn Brötz, Louis-Philippe Caron, Nuno Carvalhais, Irene Cionni, Nicola Cortesi, Bas Crezee, Edouard L. Davin, Paolo Davini, Kevin Debeire, Lee de Mora, Clara Deser, David Docquier, Paul Earnshaw, Carsten Ehbrecht, Bettina K. Gier, Nube Gonzalez-Reviriego, Paul Goodman, Stefan Hagemann, Steven Hardiman, Birgit Hassler, Alasdair Hunter, Christopher Kadow, Stephan Kindermann, Sujan Koirala, Nikolay Koldunov, Quentin Lejeune, Valerio Lembo, Tomas Lovato, Valerio Lucarini, François Massonnet, Benjamin Müller, Amarjiit Pandde, Núria Pérez-Zanón, Adam Phillips, Valeriu Predoi, Joellen Russell, Alistair Sellar, Federico Serva, Tobias Stacke, Ranjini Swaminathan, Verónica Torralba, Javier Vegas-Regidor, Jost von Hardenberg, Katja Weigel, and Klaus Zimmermann
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 3383–3438, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-3383-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-3383-2020, 2020
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The Earth System Model Evaluation Tool (ESMValTool) is a community diagnostics and performance metrics tool designed to improve comprehensive and routine evaluation of earth system models (ESMs) participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). It has undergone rapid development since the first release in 2016 and is now a well-tested tool that provides end-to-end provenance tracking to ensure reproducibility.
Hong Xuan Do, Fang Zhao, Seth Westra, Michael Leonard, Lukas Gudmundsson, Julien Eric Stanislas Boulange, Jinfeng Chang, Philippe Ciais, Dieter Gerten, Simon N. Gosling, Hannes Müller Schmied, Tobias Stacke, Camelia-Eliza Telteu, and Yoshihide Wada
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 1543–1564, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1543-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1543-2020, 2020
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We presented a global comparison between observed and simulated trends in a flood index over the 1971–2005 period using the Global Streamflow Indices and Metadata archive and six global hydrological models available through The Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project. Streamflow simulations over 2006–2099 period robustly project high flood hazard in several regions. These high-flood-risk areas, however, are under-sampled by the current global streamflow databases.
Michal Mikolaj, Andreas Güntner, Claudio Brunini, Hartmut Wziontek, Mauricio Gende, Stephan Schröder, Augusto M. Cassino, Alfredo Pasquaré, Marvin Reich, Anne Hartmann, Fernando A. Oreiro, Jonathan Pendiuk, Luis Guarracino, and Ezequiel D. Antokoletz
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 11, 1501–1513, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1501-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1501-2019, 2019
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We present the first continuous measurements of hydrological, meteorological, and gravity variables at the Argentine-German Geodetic Observatory (AGGO) close to La Plata, Argentina, for the period 2016–2018. The data may be used by both scientists and local authorities to correct other geodetic observations at the observatory, to monitor environmental changes, or to quantify extreme events such as floods and droughts in the La Plata region.
Gerhard Krinner, Chris Derksen, Richard Essery, Mark Flanner, Stefan Hagemann, Martyn Clark, Alex Hall, Helmut Rott, Claire Brutel-Vuilmet, Hyungjun Kim, Cécile B. Ménard, Lawrence Mudryk, Chad Thackeray, Libo Wang, Gabriele Arduini, Gianpaolo Balsamo, Paul Bartlett, Julia Boike, Aaron Boone, Frédérique Chéruy, Jeanne Colin, Matthias Cuntz, Yongjiu Dai, Bertrand Decharme, Jeff Derry, Agnès Ducharne, Emanuel Dutra, Xing Fang, Charles Fierz, Josephine Ghattas, Yeugeniy Gusev, Vanessa Haverd, Anna Kontu, Matthieu Lafaysse, Rachel Law, Dave Lawrence, Weiping Li, Thomas Marke, Danny Marks, Martin Ménégoz, Olga Nasonova, Tomoko Nitta, Masashi Niwano, John Pomeroy, Mark S. Raleigh, Gerd Schaedler, Vladimir Semenov, Tanya G. Smirnova, Tobias Stacke, Ulrich Strasser, Sean Svenson, Dmitry Turkov, Tao Wang, Nander Wever, Hua Yuan, Wenyan Zhou, and Dan Zhu
Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 5027–5049, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-5027-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-5027-2018, 2018
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This paper provides an overview of a coordinated international experiment to determine the strengths and weaknesses in how climate models treat snow. The models will be assessed at point locations using high-quality reference measurements and globally using satellite-derived datasets. How well climate models simulate snow-related processes is important because changing snow cover is an important part of the global climate system and provides an important freshwater resource for human use.
Till Francke, Saskia Foerster, Arlena Brosinsky, Erik Sommerer, Jose A. Lopez-Tarazon, Andreas Güntner, Ramon J. Batalla, and Axel Bronstert
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 1063–1075, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1063-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1063-2018, 2018
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This paper presents a hydro-sedimentological dataset for the Isábena catchment, northeastern Spain, for the period 2010–2018. It contains the results of several years of monitoring rainfall, discharge and sediment flux and analysing soil spectroscopic properties. The dataset features data in high spatial and temporal resolution suitable for the advanced process understanding of water and sediment fluxes, their origin and connectivity and sediment budgeting and for model development.
Ben T. Gouweleeuw, Andreas Kvas, Christian Gruber, Animesh K. Gain, Thorsten Mayer-Gürr, Frank Flechtner, and Andreas Güntner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 2867–2880, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2867-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2867-2018, 2018
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Daily GRACE gravity field solutions have been evaluated against daily river runoff data for major flood events in the Ganges–Brahmaputra Delta in 2004 and 2007. Compared to the monthly gravity field solutions, the trends over periods of a few days in the daily gravity field solutions are able to reflect temporal variations in river runoff during major flood events. This implies that daily gravity field solutions released in near-real time may support flood monitoring for large events.
Philipp de Vrese, Tobias Stacke, and Stefan Hagemann
Earth Syst. Dynam., 9, 393–412, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-393-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-9-393-2018, 2018
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The potential food supply depends strongly on climatic conditions, while agricultural activity has substantial impacts on climate. Using an Earth system model, we investigate the climate–agriculture interactions resulting from a maximization of the global cropland area during the 21st century. We find that the potential food supply can be increased substantially, but guaranteeing food security in dry areas in Northern Africa, the Middle East and South Asia will become increasingly difficult.
Christopher Irrgang, Jan Saynisch-Wagner, and Maik Thomas
Ann. Geophys., 36, 167–180, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-167-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-167-2018, 2018
Andreas Güntner, Marvin Reich, Michal Mikolaj, Benjamin Creutzfeldt, Stephan Schroeder, and Hartmut Wziontek
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 3167–3182, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3167-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3167-2017, 2017
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Monitoring water storage changes beyond the point scale is a challenge. Here, we show that an integrative and non-invasive way is by observing variations of gravity that are induced by water mass changes. A high-precision superconducting gravimeter is successfully operated in the field and allows for direct and continuous monitoring of the water balance and of its components, such as actual evapotranspiration.
Ingo Heidbüchel, Andreas Güntner, and Theresa Blume
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 1269–1288, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-1269-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-1269-2016, 2016
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Cosmic-ray neutron sensors bridge the gap between point-scale measurements of soil moisture and remote sensing applications. We tested four distinct methods to calibrate the sensor in a temperate forest environment using different soil moisture weighting approaches. While the variable leaf biomass of the deciduous trees had no significant influence on the calibration, it proved necessary to modify the standard calibration method to achieve the best sensor performance.
T. Stacke and S. Hagemann
Earth Syst. Dynam., 7, 1–19, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-1-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-1-2016, 2016
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This study evaluates the lifetime of soil moisture perturbations using an atmosphere-land GCM. We find memory of up to 9 months for root zone soil moisture. Interactions with other surface states result in significant but short-lived anomalies in surface temperature and more stable anomalies in leaf carbon content. As these anomalies can recur repeatedly, e.g. due to interactions with a deep-soil moisture reservoir, we conclude that soil moisture initialization may impact climate predictions.
C. Irrgang, J. Saynisch, and M. Thomas
Ocean Sci., 12, 129–136, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-12-129-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-12-129-2016, 2016
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In this study, the influence of a spatio-temporally variable seawater conductivity on ocean-circulation-induced magnetic signals is investigated. To simulate the ocean-circulation-induced magnetic field, a combination of an ocean general circulation model (OMCT) and an electromagnetic induction model is used. It is found that a spatially varying seawater conductivity has a significant impact on the temporal variability of the induced magnetic field.
B. Mayer, T. Stacke, I. Stottmeister, and T. Pohlmann
Ocean Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/osd-12-863-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/osd-12-863-2015, 2015
Revised manuscript not accepted
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The Indonesian Sunda Shelf (average depth 48 m) is subject to many physical and biogeochemical processes with a strong impact from human activities. For investigation of marine environmental water properties, it is important to know characteristic water exchange rates. With realistic computer model results, analytical flushing rates and tracer residence times were compared for different shelf regions. Only the latter give detailed 3D pictures with times of less than 30 days to more than 2 years.
J. C. S. Davie, P. D. Falloon, R. Kahana, R. Dankers, R. Betts, F. T. Portmann, D. Wisser, D. B. Clark, A. Ito, Y. Masaki, K. Nishina, B. Fekete, Z. Tessler, Y. Wada, X. Liu, Q. Tang, S. Hagemann, T. Stacke, R. Pavlick, S. Schaphoff, S. N. Gosling, W. Franssen, and N. Arnell
Earth Syst. Dynam., 4, 359–374, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-4-359-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-4-359-2013, 2013
A. Loew, T. Stacke, W. Dorigo, R. de Jeu, and S. Hagemann
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 3523–3542, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-3523-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-3523-2013, 2013
D. Duethmann, J. Zimmer, A. Gafurov, A. Güntner, D. Kriegel, B. Merz, and S. Vorogushyn
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 2415–2434, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-2415-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-2415-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Global hydrology | Techniques and Approaches: Remote Sensing and GIS
Potential of long-term satellite observations and reanalysis products for characterising soil drying: trends and drought events
Interannual variations of terrestrial water storage in the East African Rift region
Technical note: Surface fields for global environmental modelling
Benchmarking multimodel terrestrial water storage seasonal cycle against Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) observations over major global river basins
Increasing seasonal variation in the extent of rivers and lakes from 1984 to 2022
Investigating sources of variability in closing the terrestrial water balance with remote sensing
Dynamic rainfall erosivity estimates derived from IMERG data
A global analysis of water storage variations from remotely sensed soil moisture and daily satellite gravimetry
Soil moisture estimates at 1 km resolution making a synergistic use of Sentinel data
Global evaluation of the “dry gets drier, and wet gets wetter” paradigm from a terrestrial water storage change perspective
Global assessment of subnational drought impact based on the Geocoded Disasters dataset and land reanalysis
Scaling methods of leakage correction in GRACE mass change estimates revisited for the complex hydro-climatic setting of the Indus Basin
Remotely sensed reservoir water storage dynamics (1984–2015) and the influence of climate variability and management at a global scale
Characterizing natural variability in complex hydrological systems using passive microwave-based climate data records: a case study for the Okavango Delta
High-resolution (1 km) satellite rainfall estimation from SM2RAIN applied to Sentinel-1: Po River basin as a case study
The accuracy of temporal upscaling of instantaneous evapotranspiration to daily values with seven upscaling methods
Global component analysis of errors in three satellite-only global precipitation estimates
Estimation of hydrological drought recovery based on precipitation and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) water storage deficit
Intercomparison of freshwater fluxes over ocean and investigations into water budget closure
Widespread decline in terrestrial water storage and its link to teleconnections across Asia and eastern Europe
Assimilation of vegetation optical depth retrievals from passive microwave radiometry
Long-term total water storage change from a Satellite Water Cycle reconstruction over large southern Asian basins
Global partitioning of runoff generation mechanisms using remote sensing data
Land–atmosphere interactions in the tropics – a review
Global-scale human pressure evolution imprints on sustainability of river systems
Using GRACE in a streamflow recession to determine drainable water storage in the Mississippi River basin
A new dense 18-year time series of surface water fraction estimates from MODIS for the Mediterranean region
Global joint assimilation of GRACE and SMOS for improved estimation of root-zone soil moisture and vegetation response
Using modelled discharge to develop satellite-based river gauging: a case study for the Amazon Basin
Global downscaling of remotely sensed soil moisture using neural networks
Global 5 km resolution estimates of secondary evaporation including irrigation through satellite data assimilation
Exploring the merging of the global land evaporation WACMOS-ET products based on local tower measurements
Estimating time-dependent vegetation biases in the SMAP soil moisture product
Daily GRACE gravity field solutions track major flood events in the Ganges–Brahmaputra Delta
Controls on surface soil drying rates observed by SMAP and simulated by the Noah land surface model
Quantification of surface water volume changes in the Mackenzie Delta using satellite multi-mission data
Microwave implementation of two-source energy balance approach for estimating evapotranspiration
A global approach to estimate irrigated areas – a comparison between different data and statistics
The future of Earth observation in hydrology
MSWEP: 3-hourly 0.25° global gridded precipitation (1979–2015) by merging gauge, satellite, and reanalysis data
Evaluating the hydrological consistency of evaporation products using satellite-based gravity and rainfall data
Evaluating the strength of the land–atmosphere moisture feedback in Earth system models using satellite observations
Cloud tolerance of remote-sensing technologies to measure land surface temperature
Dynamic changes in terrestrial net primary production and their effects on evapotranspiration
Assessing changes in urban flood vulnerability through mapping land use from historical information
SACRA – a method for the estimation of global high-resolution crop calendars from a satellite-sensed NDVI
A global data set of the extent of irrigated land from 1900 to 2005
Evaluation of the satellite-based Global Flood Detection System for measuring river discharge: influence of local factors
Spatial patterns in timing of the diurnal temperature cycle
Potential and limitations of multidecadal satellite soil moisture observations for selected climate model evaluation studies
Martin Hirschi, Pietro Stradiotti, Bas Crezee, Wouter Dorigo, and Sonia I. Seneviratne
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 397–425, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-397-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-397-2025, 2025
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We investigate the potential of long-term satellite and reanalysis products for characterising soil drying by analysing their 2000–2022 soil moisture trends and their representation of agroecological drought events of this period. Soil moisture trends are globally diverse and partly contradictory between products. This also affects the products' drought-detection capacity. Based on the best-estimate products, consistent soil drying is observed over more than 40 % of the land area covered.
Eva Boergens, Andreas Güntner, Mike Sips, Christian Schwatke, and Henryk Dobslaw
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4733–4754, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4733-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4733-2024, 2024
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The satellites GRACE and GRACE-FO observe continental terrestrial water storage (TWS) changes. With over 20 years of data, we can look into long-term variations in the East Africa Rift region. We focus on analysing the interannual TWS variations compared to meteorological data and observations of the water storage compartments. We found strong influences of natural precipitation variability and human actions over Lake Victoria's water level.
Margarita Choulga, Francesca Moschini, Cinzia Mazzetti, Stefania Grimaldi, Juliana Disperati, Hylke Beck, Peter Salamon, and Christel Prudhomme
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 2991–3036, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2991-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2991-2024, 2024
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CEMS_SurfaceFields_2022 dataset is a new set of high-resolution maps for land type (e.g. lake, forest), soil properties and population water needs at approximately 2 and 6 km at the Equator, covering Europe and the globe (excluding Antarctica). We describe what and how new high-resolution information can be used to create the dataset. The paper suggests that the dataset can be used as input for river, weather or other models, as well as for statistical descriptions of the region of interest.
Sadia Bibi, Tingju Zhu, Ashraf Rateb, Bridget R. Scanlon, Muhammad Aqeel Kamran, Abdelrazek Elnashar, Ali Bennour, and Ci Li
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 1725–1750, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1725-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1725-2024, 2024
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We assessed 13 global models using GRACE satellite data over 29 river basins. Simulated seasonal water storage cycles showed discrepancies compared to GRACE. The models overestimated seasonal amplitude in boreal basins and showed underestimation in tropical, arid, and temperate zones, with phase differences of 2–3 months compared to GRACE in cold basins and of 1 month in temperate, arid, and semi-arid basins. Seasonal amplitude and phase differences provide insights for model improvement.
Björn Nyberg, Roger Sayre, and Elco Luijendijk
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 1653–1663, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1653-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1653-2024, 2024
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Understanding the spatial and temporal distribution of surface water is crucial for effective water resource management, maintaining ecosystem health and assessing flood risks. This study examined permanent and seasonal rivers and lakes globally over 38 years, uncovering a statistically significant expansion in seasonal extent captured in the new SARL database. The findings offer valuable resources for assessing the impact of changing river and lake extents on ecosystems and human livelihoods.
Claire I. Michailovsky, Bert Coerver, Marloes Mul, and Graham Jewitt
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 4335–4354, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-4335-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-4335-2023, 2023
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Many remote sensing products for precipitation, evapotranspiration, and water storage variations exist. However, when these are used with in situ runoff data in water balance closure studies, no single combination of products consistently outperforms others. We analyzed the water balance closure using different products in catchments worldwide and related the results to catchment characteristics. Our results can help identify the dataset combinations best suited for use in different catchments.
Robert A. Emberson
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 3547–3563, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3547-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-3547-2023, 2023
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Soil can be eroded by rainfall, and this is a major threat to agricultural sustainability. Estimating the erosivity of rainfall is essential as a first step to determine how much soil might be lost. Until recently, satellite data have not been used to estimate rainfall erosivity, but the data quality is now sufficient to do so. In this study, I test several methods to calculate rainfall erosivity using satellite rainfall data and contrast this with ground-based estimates.
Daniel Blank, Annette Eicker, Laura Jensen, and Andreas Güntner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 2413–2435, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2413-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2413-2023, 2023
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Soil moisture (SM), a key variable of the global water cycle, is analyzed using two types of satellite observations; microwave sensors measure the top few centimeters and satellite gravimetry (GRACE) the full vertical water column. As SM can change very fast, non-standard daily GRACE data are applied for the first time for this analysis. Jointly analyzing these data gives insight into the SM dynamics at different soil depths, and time shifts indicate the infiltration time into deeper layers.
Remi Madelon, Nemesio J. Rodríguez-Fernández, Hassan Bazzi, Nicolas Baghdadi, Clement Albergel, Wouter Dorigo, and Mehrez Zribi
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 1221–1242, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-1221-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-1221-2023, 2023
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We present an approach to estimate soil moisture (SM) at 1 km resolution using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3 satellites. The estimates were compared to other high-resolution (HR) datasets over Europe, northern Africa, Australia, and North America, showing good agreement. However, the discrepancies between the different HR datasets and their lower performances compared with in situ measurements and coarse-resolution datasets show the remaining challenges for large-scale HR SM mapping.
Jinghua Xiong, Shenglian Guo, Abhishek, Jie Chen, and Jiabo Yin
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 6457–6476, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-6457-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-6457-2022, 2022
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Although the "dry gets drier, and wet gets wetter (DDWW)" paradigm is prevalent in summarizing wetting and drying trends, we show that only 11.01 %–40.84 % of the global land confirms and 10.21 %–35.43 % contradicts the paradigm during 1985–2014 from a terrestrial water storage change perspective. Similar proportions that intensify with the increasing emission scenarios persist until the end of the 21st century. Findings benefit understanding of global hydrological responses to climate change.
Yuya Kageyama and Yohei Sawada
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 4707–4720, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-4707-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-4707-2022, 2022
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This study explores the link between hydrometeorological droughts and their socioeconomic impact at a subnational scale based on the newly developed disaster dataset with subnational location information. Hydrometeorological drought-prone areas were generally consistent with socioeconomic drought-prone areas in the disaster dataset. Our analysis clarifies the importance of the use of subnational disaster information.
Vasaw Tripathi, Andreas Groh, Martin Horwath, and Raaj Ramsankaran
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 4515–4535, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-4515-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-4515-2022, 2022
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GRACE/GRACE-FO provided global observations of water storage change since 2002. Scaling is a common approach to compensate for the spatial filtering inherent to the results. However, for complex hydrological basins, the compatibility of scaling with the characteristics of regional hydrology has been rarely assessed. We assess traditional scaling approaches and a new scaling approach for the Indus Basin. Our results will help users with regional focus understand implications of scaling choices.
Jiawei Hou, Albert I. J. M. van Dijk, Hylke E. Beck, Luigi J. Renzullo, and Yoshihide Wada
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 3785–3803, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3785-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3785-2022, 2022
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We used satellite imagery to measure monthly reservoir water volumes for 6695 reservoirs worldwide for 1984–2015. We investigated how changing precipitation, streamflow, evaporation, and human activity affected reservoir water storage. Almost half of the reservoirs showed significant increasing or decreasing trends over the past three decades. These changes are caused, first and foremost, by changes in precipitation rather than by changes in net evaporation or dam release patterns.
Robin van der Schalie, Mendy van der Vliet, Clément Albergel, Wouter Dorigo, Piotr Wolski, and Richard de Jeu
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 3611–3627, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3611-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3611-2022, 2022
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Climate data records of surface soil moisture, vegetation optical depth, and land surface temperature can be derived from passive microwave observations. The ability of these datasets to properly detect anomalies and extremes is very valuable in climate research and can especially help to improve our insight in complex regions where the current climate reanalysis datasets reach their limitations. Here, we present a case study over the Okavango Delta, where we focus on inter-annual variability.
Paolo Filippucci, Luca Brocca, Raphael Quast, Luca Ciabatta, Carla Saltalippi, Wolfgang Wagner, and Angelica Tarpanelli
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 2481–2497, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2481-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2481-2022, 2022
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A high-resolution (1 km) rainfall product with 10–30 d temporal resolution was obtained starting from SM data from Sentinel-1. Good performances are achieved using observed data (gauge and radar) over the Po River Valley, Italy, as a benchmark. The comparison with a product characterized by lower spatial resolution (25 km) highlights areas where the high spatial resolution of Sentinel-1 has great benefits. Possible applications include water management, agriculture and index-based insurances.
Zhaofei Liu
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 4417–4433, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-4417-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-4417-2021, 2021
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Instantaneous evapotranspiration (ET), which is detected by the remote sensing technique, needs to be upscaled to daily values in order to practical applications. The accuracy of seven upscaling methods is evaluated by using global observations. The sine function and the evaporative fraction method using extraterrestrial solar irradiance are recommended. Although every upscaling scheme has high accuracy at most sites, it is less accurate at tropical rainforest and tropical monsoon sites.
Hanqing Chen, Bin Yong, Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter, Leyang Wang, and Yang Hong
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 3087–3104, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-3087-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-3087-2021, 2021
Alka Singh, John Thomas Reager, and Ali Behrangi
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 511–526, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-511-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-511-2021, 2021
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The study demonstrates the utility of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSAs) for obtaining statistics of hydrological droughts, i.e., recovery periods and required precipitation in different precipitation scenarios. The findings of this study are that the GRACE-based drought index is valid for estimating the required precipitation for drought recovery, and the period of drought recovery depends on the intensity of the precipitation.
Marloes Gutenstein, Karsten Fennig, Marc Schröder, Tim Trent, Stephan Bakan, J. Brent Roberts, and Franklin R. Robertson
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 121–146, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-121-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-121-2021, 2021
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The net exchange of water between the surface and atmosphere is mainly determined by the freshwater flux: the difference between evaporation (E) and precipitation (P), or E−P. Although there is consensus among modelers that with a warming climate E−P will increase, evidence from satellite data is still not conclusive, mainly due to sensor calibration issues. We here investigate the degree of correspondence among six recent
satellite-based climate data records and ERA5 reanalysis E−P data.
Xianfeng Liu, Xiaoming Feng, Philippe Ciais, and Bojie Fu
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 3663–3676, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-3663-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-3663-2020, 2020
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Freshwater availability is crucial for sustainable development across the Asian and eastern European regions. Our results indicate widespread decline in terrestrial water storage (TWS) over the region during 2002–2017, primarily due to the intensive over-extraction of groundwater and warmth-induced surface water loss. The findings provide insights into changes in TWS and its components over the Asian and eastern European regions, where there is growing demand for food grains and water supplies.
Sujay V. Kumar, Thomas R. Holmes, Rajat Bindlish, Richard de Jeu, and Christa Peters-Lidard
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 3431–3450, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-3431-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-3431-2020, 2020
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Vegetation optical depth (VOD) is a byproduct of the soil moisture retrieval from passive microwave instruments. This study demonstrates that VOD information can be utilized for improving land surface water budget and carbon conditions through data assimilation.
Victor Pellet, Filipe Aires, Fabrice Papa, Simon Munier, and Bertrand Decharme
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 3033–3055, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-3033-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-3033-2020, 2020
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The water mass variation at and below the land surface is a major component of the water cycle that was first estimated using GRACE observations (2002–2017). Our analysis shows the advantages of the use of satellite observation for precipitation and evapotranspiration along with river discharge measurement to perform an indirect and coherent reconstruction of this water component estimate over longer time periods.
Joseph T. D. Lucey, John T. Reager, and Sonya R. Lopez
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 1415–1427, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1415-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-1415-2020, 2020
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This work relates total water storage (TWS) and rainfall to surface water inundation (SWI) using NASA satellite data. We determine whether TWS and/or rainfall control global SWI developments. Regression methods and cross-correlations were used to relate the measurements and correct for time differences among peaks. Results show TWS and rainfall control most global SWI developments. To our knowledge, this is the first global study on SWI controls and validates previous findings.
Pierre Gentine, Adam Massmann, Benjamin R. Lintner, Sayed Hamed Alemohammad, Rong Fu, Julia K. Green, Daniel Kennedy, and Jordi Vilà-Guerau de Arellano
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 4171–4197, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4171-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4171-2019, 2019
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Land–atmosphere interactions are key for the exchange of water, energy, and carbon dioxide, especially in the tropics. We here review some of the recent findings on land–atmosphere interactions in the tropics and where we see potential challenges and paths forward.
Serena Ceola, Francesco Laio, and Alberto Montanari
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 3933–3944, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3933-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3933-2019, 2019
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A simple and effective index for the quantitative estimation of the evolution of human pressure on rivers at global scale is proposed. This index, based on nightlights and river discharge data, shows a significant increase from 1992 to 2013 worldwide. The most notable changes are found in river basins across Africa and Asia, where human pressure on rivers is growing markedly. This index identifies priority areas that can be targeted for the implementation of mitigation strategies and plans.
Heloisa Ehalt Macedo, Ralph Edward Beighley, Cédric H. David, and John T. Reager
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 3269–3277, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3269-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3269-2019, 2019
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The water stored under the surface is very important for defining the amount of water available for human and environmental applications; however, it is still a challenge to obtain such measurements. NASA's GRACE satellites provide information on total terrestrial water storage based on observations of gravity changes. Here, we relate GRACE data to streamflow measurements, providing estimations of the fraction of baseflow and total drainable storage for the Mississippi River basin.
Linlin Li, Andrew Skidmore, Anton Vrieling, and Tiejun Wang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 3037–3056, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3037-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3037-2019, 2019
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We derived an 8 d, 500 m resolution surface water fraction product over the Mediterranean region for 2000–2017 based on MODIS data. This dataset complements existing surface water/wetland datasets by adding more temporal detail. It allows for the seasonal, inter-annual, and long-term dynamics of the surface water extent to be monitored, inclusive of small-sized and highly dynamic water bodies; it can also contribute to biodiversity and climate change assessment.
Siyuan Tian, Luigi J. Renzullo, Albert I. J. M. van Dijk, Paul Tregoning, and Jeffrey P. Walker
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1067–1081, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1067-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1067-2019, 2019
Jiawei Hou, Albert I. J. M. van Dijk, Luigi J. Renzullo, and Robert A. Vertessy
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 6435–6448, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-6435-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-6435-2018, 2018
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Satellite-based river gauging can be constructed based on remote-sensing-derived surface water extent and modelled discharge, and used to estimate river discharges with satellite observations only. This provides opportunities for monitoring river discharge in the absence of a real-time hydrological model or gauging stations.
Seyed Hamed Alemohammad, Jana Kolassa, Catherine Prigent, Filipe Aires, and Pierre Gentine
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 5341–5356, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5341-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-5341-2018, 2018
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A new machine learning algorithm is developed to downscale satellite-based soil moisture estimates from their native spatial scale of 9 km to 2.25 km.
Albert I. J. M. van Dijk, Jaap Schellekens, Marta Yebra, Hylke E. Beck, Luigi J. Renzullo, Albrecht Weerts, and Gennadii Donchyts
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 4959–4980, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-4959-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-4959-2018, 2018
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Evaporation from wetlands, lakes and irrigation areas needs to be measured to understand water scarcity. So far, this has only been possible for small regions. Here, we develop a solution that can be applied at a very high resolution globally by making use of satellite observations. Our results show that 16% of global water resources evaporate before reaching the ocean, mostly from surface water. Irrigation water use is less than 1% globally but is a very large water user in several dry basins.
Carlos Jiménez, Brecht Martens, Diego M. Miralles, Joshua B. Fisher, Hylke E. Beck, and Diego Fernández-Prieto
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 4513–4533, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-4513-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-4513-2018, 2018
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Observing the amount of water evaporated in nature is not easy, and we need to combine accurate local measurements with estimates from satellites, more uncertain but covering larger areas. This is the main topic of our paper, in which local observations are compared with global land evaporation estimates, followed by a weighting of the global observations based on this comparison to attempt derive a more accurate evaporation product.
Simon Zwieback, Andreas Colliander, Michael H. Cosh, José Martínez-Fernández, Heather McNairn, Patrick J. Starks, Marc Thibeault, and Aaron Berg
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 4473–4489, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-4473-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-4473-2018, 2018
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Satellite soil moisture products can provide critical information on incipient droughts and the interplay between vegetation and water availability. However, time-variant systematic errors in the soil moisture products may impede their usefulness. Using a novel statistical approach, we detect such errors (associated with changing vegetation) in the SMAP soil moisture product. The vegetation-associated biases impede drought detection and the quantification of vegetation–water interactions.
Ben T. Gouweleeuw, Andreas Kvas, Christian Gruber, Animesh K. Gain, Thorsten Mayer-Gürr, Frank Flechtner, and Andreas Güntner
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 2867–2880, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2867-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2867-2018, 2018
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Daily GRACE gravity field solutions have been evaluated against daily river runoff data for major flood events in the Ganges–Brahmaputra Delta in 2004 and 2007. Compared to the monthly gravity field solutions, the trends over periods of a few days in the daily gravity field solutions are able to reflect temporal variations in river runoff during major flood events. This implies that daily gravity field solutions released in near-real time may support flood monitoring for large events.
Peter J. Shellito, Eric E. Small, and Ben Livneh
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 1649–1663, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1649-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1649-2018, 2018
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After soil gets wet, much of the surface moisture evaporates directly back into the air. Recent satellite data show that this process is enhanced when there is more water in the soil, less humidity in the air, and less vegetation covering the ground. A widely used model shows similar effects of soil water and humidity, but it largely misses the role of vegetation and assigns outsized importance to soil type. These results are encouraging evidence that the satellite can be used to improve models.
Cassandra Normandin, Frédéric Frappart, Bertrand Lubac, Simon Bélanger, Vincent Marieu, Fabien Blarel, Arthur Robinet, and Léa Guiastrennec-Faugas
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 1543–1561, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1543-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1543-2018, 2018
Thomas R. H. Holmes, Christopher R. Hain, Wade T. Crow, Martha C. Anderson, and William P. Kustas
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 1351–1369, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1351-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1351-2018, 2018
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In an effort to apply cloud-tolerant microwave data to satellite-based monitoring of evapotranspiration (ET), this study reports on an experiment where microwave-based land surface temperature is used as the key diagnostic input to a two-source energy balance method for the estimation of ET. Comparisons of this microwave ET with the conventional thermal infrared estimates show widespread agreement in spatial and temporal patterns from seasonal to inter-annual timescales over Africa and Europe.
Jonas Meier, Florian Zabel, and Wolfram Mauser
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 1119–1133, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1119-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1119-2018, 2018
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The following study extends existing irrigation maps based on official reports. The main idea was to extend the reported irrigated areas using agricultural suitability data and compare them with remote sensing information about plant conditions. The analysis indicates an increase in irrigated land by 18 % compared to the reported statistics. The additional areas are mainly identified within already known irrigated regions where irrigation is more dense than previously estimated.
Matthew F. McCabe, Matthew Rodell, Douglas E. Alsdorf, Diego G. Miralles, Remko Uijlenhoet, Wolfgang Wagner, Arko Lucieer, Rasmus Houborg, Niko E. C. Verhoest, Trenton E. Franz, Jiancheng Shi, Huilin Gao, and Eric F. Wood
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 3879–3914, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3879-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3879-2017, 2017
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We examine the opportunities and challenges that technological advances in Earth observation will present to the hydrological community. From advanced space-based sensors to unmanned aerial vehicles and ground-based distributed networks, these emergent systems are set to revolutionize our understanding and interpretation of hydrological and related processes.
Hylke E. Beck, Albert I. J. M. van Dijk, Vincenzo Levizzani, Jaap Schellekens, Diego G. Miralles, Brecht Martens, and Ad de Roo
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 589–615, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-589-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-589-2017, 2017
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MSWEP (Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation) is a new global terrestrial precipitation dataset with a high 3-hourly temporal and 0.25° spatial resolution. The dataset is unique in that it takes advantage of a wide range of data sources, including gauge, satellite, and reanalysis data, to obtain the best possible precipitation estimates at global scale. The dataset outperforms existing gauge-adjusted precipitation datasets.
Oliver López, Rasmus Houborg, and Matthew Francis McCabe
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 323–343, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-323-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-323-2017, 2017
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The study evaluated the spatial and temporal consistency of satellite-based hydrological products based on the water budget equation, including three global evaporation products. The products were spatially matched using spherical harmonics analysis. The results highlighted the difficulty in obtaining agreement between independent satellite products, even over regions with simple water budgets. However, imposing a time lag on water storage data improved results considerably.
Paul A. Levine, James T. Randerson, Sean C. Swenson, and David M. Lawrence
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 4837–4856, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-4837-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-4837-2016, 2016
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We demonstrate a new approach to assess the strength of feedbacks resulting from land–atmosphere coupling on decadal timescales. Our approach was tailored to enable evaluation of Earth system models (ESMs) using data from Earth observation satellites that measure terrestrial water storage anomalies and relevant atmospheric variables. Our results are consistent with previous work demonstrating that ESMs may be overestimating the strength of land surface feedbacks compared with observations.
Thomas R. H. Holmes, Christopher R. Hain, Martha C. Anderson, and Wade T. Crow
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 3263–3275, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-3263-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-3263-2016, 2016
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We test the cloud tolerance of two technologies to estimate land surface temperature (LST) from space: microwave (MW) and thermal infrared (TIR). Although TIR has slightly lower errors than MW with ground data under clear-sky conditions, it suffers increasing negative bias as cloud cover increases. In contrast, we find no direct impact of clouds on the accuracy and bias of MW-LST. MW-LST can therefore be used to improve TIR cloud screening and increase sampling in clouded regions.
Zhi Li, Yaning Chen, Yang Wang, and Gonghuan Fang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 2169–2178, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2169-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2169-2016, 2016
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Global net primary production (NPP) slightly increased in 2000–2014. More than 64 % of vegetated land in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) showed increased NPP, while 60.3 % in Southern Hemisphere (SH) showed a decreasing trend. Vegetation greening and climate change promote rises of global evapotranspiration (ET). The increased rate of ET in the NH is faster than that in the SH. Meanwhile, global warming and vegetation greening accelerate evaporation in soil moisture. Continuation of these trends will likely exacerbate the risk of ecological drought.
M. Boudou, B. Danière, and M. Lang
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 161–173, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-161-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-161-2016, 2016
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This paper presents an appraisal of flood vulnerability of two French cities, Besançon and Moissac, which have been largely impacted by two ancient major floods (resp. in January 1910 and March 1930). An analysis of historical sources allows the mapping of land use and occupation within the flood extent of the two historical floods, both in past and present contexts. It gives an insight into the complexity of flood risk evolution, at a local scale.
S. Kotsuki and K. Tanaka
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 4441–4461, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-4441-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-4441-2015, 2015
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This study aims to develop a new global data set of a satellite-derived crop calendar (SACRA) and to reveal its advantages and disadvantages compared to other global products. The cultivation period of SACRA is identified from the time series of NDVI; therefore, SACRA considers current effects of human decisions and natural disasters. The difference between the estimated sowing dates and other existing products is less than 2 months (< 62 days) in most areas.
S. Siebert, M. Kummu, M. Porkka, P. Döll, N. Ramankutty, and B. R. Scanlon
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 1521–1545, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-1521-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-1521-2015, 2015
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We developed the historical irrigation data set (HID) depicting the spatio-temporal development of the area equipped for irrigation (AEI) between 1900 and 2005 at 5arcmin resolution.
The HID reflects very well the spatial patterns of irrigated land as shown on two historical maps for 1910 and 1960.
Global AEI increased from 63 million ha (Mha) in 1900 to 111 Mha in 1950 and 306 Mha in 2005. Mean aridity on irrigated land increased and mean natural river discharge decreased from 1900 to 1950.
B. Revilla-Romero, J. Thielen, P. Salamon, T. De Groeve, and G. R. Brakenridge
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 4467–4484, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-4467-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-4467-2014, 2014
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One of the main challenges in global hydrological modelling is the limited availability of observational data for calibration and model verification. The aim of this study is to test the potentials and constraints of the remote sensing signal of the Global Flood Detection System (GFDS) for converting the flood detection signal into river discharge values. This work also provides a first analysis of the local factors influencing the accuracy of discharge measurement as provided by this system.
T. R. H. Holmes, W. T. Crow, and C. Hain
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 3695–3706, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-3695-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-3695-2013, 2013
A. Loew, T. Stacke, W. Dorigo, R. de Jeu, and S. Hagemann
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 3523–3542, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-3523-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-3523-2013, 2013
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Short summary
Global numerical models perform differently, as has been found in some model intercomparison studies, which mainly focused on components like evapotranspiration, soil moisture or runoff. We have applied terrestrial water storage that is estimated from a GRACE-based state-of-art post-processing method to validate four global numerical models and try to identify the advantages and deficiencies of a certain model. GRACE-based TWS demonstrates its additional benefits to improve the models in future.
Global numerical models perform differently, as has been found in some model intercomparison...
