Surface freshwater storage and dynamics in the Amazon basin during the 2005 exceptional drought
The Amazon river basin has been recently affected by extreme climatic events, such as the exceptional drought of 2005, with significant impacts on human activities and ecosystems. In spite of the importance of monitoring freshwater stored and moving in such large river basins, only scarce measuremen...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IOP Publishing
2012-01-01
|
| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/044010 |
| _version_ | 1797748485914624000 |
|---|---|
| author | Frédéric Frappart Fabrice Papa Joecila Santos da Silva Guillaume Ramillien Catherine Prigent Frédérique Seyler Stéphane Calmant |
| author_facet | Frédéric Frappart Fabrice Papa Joecila Santos da Silva Guillaume Ramillien Catherine Prigent Frédérique Seyler Stéphane Calmant |
| author_sort | Frédéric Frappart |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Amazon river basin has been recently affected by extreme climatic events, such as the exceptional drought of 2005, with significant impacts on human activities and ecosystems. In spite of the importance of monitoring freshwater stored and moving in such large river basins, only scarce measurements of river stages and discharges are available and the signatures of extreme drought conditions on surface freshwater dynamics at the basin scale are still poorly known. Here we use continuous multisatellite observations of inundation extent and water levels between 2003 and 2007 to monitor monthly variations of surface water storage at the basin scale. During the 2005 drought, the amount of water stored in the river and floodplains of the Amazon basin was ∼130 km ^3 (∼70%) below its 2003–7 average. This represents almost a half of the anomaly of minimum terrestrial water stored in the basin as estimated using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:05:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4e7385f5fdad413fbaf6c1fe7752531f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:05:28Z |
| publishDate | 2012-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-4e7385f5fdad413fbaf6c1fe7752531f2023-08-09T14:22:50ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262012-01-017404401010.1088/1748-9326/7/4/044010Surface freshwater storage and dynamics in the Amazon basin during the 2005 exceptional droughtFrédéric Frappart0Fabrice Papa1Joecila Santos da Silva2Guillaume Ramillien3Catherine Prigent4Frédérique Seyler5Stéphane Calmant6Université de Toulouse ; UPS, OMP-GET (UPS); 14 Av. Edouard Belin, F-31400 Toulouse, France; Groupe de Recherche en Géodésie Spatiale , FranceUniversité de Toulouse ; UPS (OMP-PCA); LEGOS; 14 Av. Edouard Belin, F-31400 Toulouse, France; IRD; LEGOS , F-31400 Toulouse, FranceUniversidade do Estado do Amazonas (UEA), Centro de Estudos do Trópico Úmido (CESTUAv), Djalma Batista , 3578, Flores, Manaus, Amazonas, BrazilUniversité de Toulouse ; UPS, OMP-GET (UPS); 14 Av. Edouard Belin, F-31400 Toulouse, France; Groupe de Recherche en Géodésie Spatiale , FranceCNRS-LERMA , Observatoire de Paris, Paris, FranceUMR 228 ESPACE-DEV (IRD, UAG, UM2, UR) , Montpellier, FranceUniversité de Toulouse ; UPS (OMP-PCA); LEGOS; 14 Av. Edouard Belin, F-31400 Toulouse, France; IRD; LEGOS , F-31400 Toulouse, FranceThe Amazon river basin has been recently affected by extreme climatic events, such as the exceptional drought of 2005, with significant impacts on human activities and ecosystems. In spite of the importance of monitoring freshwater stored and moving in such large river basins, only scarce measurements of river stages and discharges are available and the signatures of extreme drought conditions on surface freshwater dynamics at the basin scale are still poorly known. Here we use continuous multisatellite observations of inundation extent and water levels between 2003 and 2007 to monitor monthly variations of surface water storage at the basin scale. During the 2005 drought, the amount of water stored in the river and floodplains of the Amazon basin was ∼130 km ^3 (∼70%) below its 2003–7 average. This represents almost a half of the anomaly of minimum terrestrial water stored in the basin as estimated using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/044010surface water storagemultisatellitefloodplains |
| spellingShingle | Frédéric Frappart Fabrice Papa Joecila Santos da Silva Guillaume Ramillien Catherine Prigent Frédérique Seyler Stéphane Calmant Surface freshwater storage and dynamics in the Amazon basin during the 2005 exceptional drought Environmental Research Letters surface water storage multisatellite floodplains |
| title | Surface freshwater storage and dynamics in the Amazon basin during the 2005 exceptional drought |
| title_full | Surface freshwater storage and dynamics in the Amazon basin during the 2005 exceptional drought |
| title_fullStr | Surface freshwater storage and dynamics in the Amazon basin during the 2005 exceptional drought |
| title_full_unstemmed | Surface freshwater storage and dynamics in the Amazon basin during the 2005 exceptional drought |
| title_short | Surface freshwater storage and dynamics in the Amazon basin during the 2005 exceptional drought |
| title_sort | surface freshwater storage and dynamics in the amazon basin during the 2005 exceptional drought |
| topic | surface water storage multisatellite floodplains |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/044010 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT fredericfrappart surfacefreshwaterstorageanddynamicsintheamazonbasinduringthe2005exceptionaldrought AT fabricepapa surfacefreshwaterstorageanddynamicsintheamazonbasinduringthe2005exceptionaldrought AT joecilasantosdasilva surfacefreshwaterstorageanddynamicsintheamazonbasinduringthe2005exceptionaldrought AT guillaumeramillien surfacefreshwaterstorageanddynamicsintheamazonbasinduringthe2005exceptionaldrought AT catherineprigent surfacefreshwaterstorageanddynamicsintheamazonbasinduringthe2005exceptionaldrought AT frederiqueseyler surfacefreshwaterstorageanddynamicsintheamazonbasinduringthe2005exceptionaldrought AT stephanecalmant surfacefreshwaterstorageanddynamicsintheamazonbasinduringthe2005exceptionaldrought |