Substantial root-zone water storage capacity observed by GRACE and GRACE/FO

Zhao, Meng; McCormick, Erica L.; A, Geruo; Konings, Alexandra G.; Li, Bailing

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2293-2025

Articles | Volume 29, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2293-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2293-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 29, issue 10

Research article

|

19 May 2025

Research article |

| 19 May 2025

Substantial root-zone water storage capacity observed by GRACE and GRACE/FO

Meng Zhao, Erica L. McCormick, Geruo A, Alexandra G. Konings, and Bailing Li

Data sets

Root-zone water storage capacity observed by GRACE and GRACE/FO Meng Zhao https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14970062

JPL GRACE Mascon Ocean, Ice, and Hydrology Equivalent Water Height Release 06 Coastal Resolution Improvement (CRI) Filtered Version 1.0 D. N. Wiese et al. https://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/data/get-data/jpl_global_mascons/

The Version 2 Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Monthly Precipitation Analysis (1979-Present) R. F. Adler et al. https://psl.noaa.gov/data/gridded/data.gpcp.html

ERA5 monthly averaged data on pressure levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/dataset/ecmwf-reanalysis-v5

MCD12C1 MODIS/Terra+Aqua Land Cover Type Yearly L3 Global 0.05Deg CMG V006 M. Friedl and D. Sulla-Menashe https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/mcd12c1v006/

G-RUN: Global Runoff Reconstruction G. Ghiggi et al. https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/GRUN_Global_Runoff_Reconstruction/9228176

GLEAM4 (v4.1) D. G. Miralles et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14056080

Model code and software

Root-zone water storage capacity observed by GRACE and GRACE/FO Meng Zhao https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14970062

Short summary

Root-zone water storage capacity (S_r) helps plants survive droughts and influences water and climate systems. Using GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite data, we estimated S_r globally and found that it exceeds 2 m soil storage in nearly half of the vegetated areas, far more than previously thought. Incorporating our S_r estimates into a global hydrological model improves evapotranspiration simulations, particularly during droughts, highlighting the value of our approach for advancing water resource and ecosystem modeling.