Sensitivity of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) to the complexity of aquifer systems for monitoring of groundwater

Katpatal, YashwantB.; Rishma, C.; Singh, ChandanK.

Sensitivity of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) to the complexity of aquifer systems for monitoring of groundwater | Sensibilité de la gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) à la complexité des systèmes aquifères pour le suivi des eaux souterraines Sensibilidad del gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) a la complejidad de los sistemas de acuíferos para el monitoreo de agua subterránea 为监测地下水对含水层复杂性进行的重力恢复和气候试验的灵敏度 Sensibilidade do gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) à complexidade dos sistemas aquíferos para monitoramento de águas subterrâneas

2018

Katpatal, YashwantB. | Rishma, C. | Singh, ChandanK.

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission is aimed at assessment of groundwater storage under different terrestrial conditions. The main objective of the presented study is to highlight the significance of aquifer complexity to improve the performance of GRACE in monitoring groundwater. Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, central India, was selected as the study area for analysis, since the region comprises a simple aquifer system in the western region and a complex aquifer system in the eastern region. Groundwater-level-trend analyses of the different aquifer systems and spatial and temporal variation of the terrestrial water storage anomaly were studied to understand the groundwater scenario. GRACE and its field application involve selecting four pixels from the GRACE output with different aquifer systems, where each GRACE pixel encompasses 50–90 monitoring wells. Groundwater storage anomalies (GWSA) are derived for each pixel for the period 2002 to 2015 using the Release 05 (RL05) monthly GRACE gravity models and the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) land-surface models (GWSAGRACE) as well as the actual field data (GWSAAcₜᵤₐₗ). Correlation analysis between GWSAGRACE and GWSAAcₜᵤₐₗ was performed using linear regression. The Pearson and Spearman methods show that the performance of GRACE is good in the region with simple aquifers; however, performance is poorer in the region with multiple aquifer systems. The study highlights the importance of incorporating the sensitivity of GRACE in estimation of groundwater storage in complex aquifer systems in future studies.

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