Signals of Climate Variability in Continental Hydrology from Multi-Sensor Space and In-situ Observations and Hydrological Modeling (CLIVAR-Hydro)

The latest IPCC assessment report identified once more the land hydrology as the most uncertain component of the global water cycle. Variations of continental water storage occur in several hydrological compartments such as groundwater, soil moisture, surface water and snow. These storage variations and related changes of mass and surface water extensions map into a considerable number of different space based or in-situ observation systems such as the GRACE gravity field mission, radar and laser altimeter systems, radiometers, optical sensors, synthetic aperture radar, and in-situ river gauges.

The project aims to perform a multi-sensor approach in order to detect, separate and balance individual contributions to continental water storage variations for selected large river basins. A specific focus of the study is on the analysis of climate signals. The project exploits the synergies of various observation systems and combines their output with hydrological simulation models. The project is carried out within a largely interdisciplinary group of networking scientists and PhD students from space engineering, geodesy, hydrology and climate research. It provides new and valuable insights into hydrological processes and the impacts of climate change on the global water cycle.

The roadmap of this project includes (1) the elaboration of the potential und usability of contemporary space-borne and terrestrial sensors, (2) a quantification of water storage variations in different compart-ments from multi-mission analysis, (3) an assessment and analysis of the total water storage change from GRACE gravity field observations, (4) the computation of water balance for different study areas, (5) the analysis of balance inconsistencies with respect to non-hydrological mass changes (e.g. due to forest fires and erosion), (6) the formulation of recommendations for future research and future satellite missions on the basis of deficits in the water balance, and, finally, (7) the interpretation of the results for water storage changes in terms of variability of weather and climate.

Selected Publications

Singh A., Seitz F.: Updated bathymetric chart of the East Aral Sea. Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut, Munich, 10.1594/PANGAEA.855779, 2015 (Open Access)
Singh A., Kumar U., Seitz F.: Remote sensing of storage fluctuations of poorly gauged reservoirs and state space model (SSM)-based estimation. Remote Sensing 7(12): 17113-17134, 10.3390/rs71215872, 2015 (Open Access)
Abelen S., Seitz F., Abarca-del-Rio R., Güntner A.: Droughts and floods in the La Plata basin in soil moisture data and GRACE. Remote Sensing 7(6): 7324-7349, 10.3390/rs70607324, 2015 (Open Access)
Seitz F., Hedman K., Meyer F.J., Lee H.: Multi-sensor space observation of heavy flood and drought conditions in the Amazon region. In: Rizos C., Willis P. (Eds.) Earth on the Edge: Science for a Sustainable Planet, IAG Symposia 139: 311-317, Springer, 10.1007/978-3-642-37222-3_41, 2014
Singh A., Seitz F., Schwatke C.: Application of multi-sensor satellite data to observe water storage variations. Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (JSTARS), 6(3): 1502-1508, 10.1109/JSTARS.2013.2258326, 2013
Schnitzer S., Seitz F., Eicker A., Güntner A., Wattenbach M., Menzel A.: Estimation of soil loss by water erosion in the Chinese Loess Plateau using Universal Soil Loss Equation and GRACE. Geophysical Journal International 193(3): 1283-1290, 10.1093/gji/ggt023, 2013
Abelen S., Seitz F.: Relating satellite gravimetry data to global soil moisture products via data harmonization and correlation analysis. Remote Sensing of Environment 136: 89-98, Elsevier, 10.1016/j.rse.2013.04.012, 2013
Singh A., Seitz F.: Water Storage Variations in the Aral Sea from Multi-sensor Satellite Data in comparison with Results from GRACE gravimetry. IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) 2012 , pp 3042-3045 , ISBN (Print) 978-1-4673-1160-1, ISBN (Online) 978-1-4673-1158-8, ISSN 2153-6996, 10.1109/IGARSS.2012.6350784, 2012
Singh A., Seitz F., Schwatke C.: Inter-annual water storage changes in the Aral Sea from multi-mission satellite altimetry, optical remote sensing, and GRACE satellite gravimetry. Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 123: 187-195, 10.1016/j.rse.2012.01.001, 2012
Abelen S., Seitz F., Schmidt M., Güntner A.: Analysis of regional variations in soil moisture by means of remote sensing, satellite gravimetry and hydrological modelling. In: Hafeez, M., et al. (eds.) GRACE, Remote Sensing and Ground-based Methods in Multi-Scale Hydrology, IAHS Red Book Series, Nr. 343, pp 9-15, International Association of Hydrological Sciences, ISBN (Print) 978-1-907161-18-6, ISSN 0144-7815, 2011
Seitz F., Hedman K., Walter C., Meyer F., Schmidt M.: Towards the assessment of regional mass variations in continental surface water storages from a combination of heterogeneous space and in-situ observations. In: Lacoste-Francis, H. (eds.) Proceedings of the ESA Living Planet Symposium, ESA Publication SP-686, ESA/ESTEC, ISBN (Online) 978-92-9221-250-6, ISSN 1609-042X, 2010

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