Emerging Changes in Terrestrial Water Storage Variability as a Target for Future Satellite Gravity Missions
Climate change will affect the terrestrial water cycle during the next decades by impacting the seasonal cycle, interannual variations, and long-term linear trends of water stored at or beyond the surface. Since 2002, terrestrial water storage (TWS) has been globally observed by the Gravity Recovery...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-11-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/23/3898 |
| _version_ | 1827701269820604416 |
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| author | Laura Jensen Annette Eicker Henryk Dobslaw Roland Pail |
| author_facet | Laura Jensen Annette Eicker Henryk Dobslaw Roland Pail |
| author_sort | Laura Jensen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Climate change will affect the terrestrial water cycle during the next decades by impacting the seasonal cycle, interannual variations, and long-term linear trends of water stored at or beyond the surface. Since 2002, terrestrial water storage (TWS) has been globally observed by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and its follow-on mission (GRACE-FO). Next Generation Gravity Missions (NGGMs) are planned to extend this record in the near future. Based on a multi-model ensemble of climate model output provided by the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) covering the years 2002–2100, we assess possible changes in TWS variability with respect to present-day conditions to help defining scientific requirements for NGGMs. We find that present-day GRACE accuracies are sufficient to detect amplitude and phase changes in the seasonal cycle in a third of the land surface, whereas a five times more accurate double-pair mission could resolve such changes almost everywhere outside the most arid landscapes of our planet. We also select one individual model experiment out of the CMIP6 ensemble that closely matches both GRACE observations and the multi-model median of all CMIP6 realizations, which might serve as basis for satellite mission performance studies extending over many decades to demonstrate the suitability of NGGM satellite missions to monitor long-term climate variations in the terrestrial water cycle. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:30:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8c8bcbdafbde4344882045aa2dee149d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:30:28Z |
| publishDate | 2020-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-8c8bcbdafbde4344882045aa2dee149d2023-11-20T22:39:15ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922020-11-011223389810.3390/rs12233898Emerging Changes in Terrestrial Water Storage Variability as a Target for Future Satellite Gravity MissionsLaura Jensen0Annette Eicker1Henryk Dobslaw2Roland Pail3Geodesy and Geoinformatics, HafenCity University, 20457 Hamburg, GermanyGeodesy and Geoinformatics, HafenCity University, 20457 Hamburg, GermanyHelmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), 14473 Potsdam, GermanyInstitute of Astronomical and Physical Geodesy, Technische Universität München, 80333 München, GermanyClimate change will affect the terrestrial water cycle during the next decades by impacting the seasonal cycle, interannual variations, and long-term linear trends of water stored at or beyond the surface. Since 2002, terrestrial water storage (TWS) has been globally observed by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and its follow-on mission (GRACE-FO). Next Generation Gravity Missions (NGGMs) are planned to extend this record in the near future. Based on a multi-model ensemble of climate model output provided by the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) covering the years 2002–2100, we assess possible changes in TWS variability with respect to present-day conditions to help defining scientific requirements for NGGMs. We find that present-day GRACE accuracies are sufficient to detect amplitude and phase changes in the seasonal cycle in a third of the land surface, whereas a five times more accurate double-pair mission could resolve such changes almost everywhere outside the most arid landscapes of our planet. We also select one individual model experiment out of the CMIP6 ensemble that closely matches both GRACE observations and the multi-model median of all CMIP6 realizations, which might serve as basis for satellite mission performance studies extending over many decades to demonstrate the suitability of NGGM satellite missions to monitor long-term climate variations in the terrestrial water cycle.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/23/3898terrestrial water storageGRACECMIP6climate modelsclimate projectionsvariability |
| spellingShingle | Laura Jensen Annette Eicker Henryk Dobslaw Roland Pail Emerging Changes in Terrestrial Water Storage Variability as a Target for Future Satellite Gravity Missions Remote Sensing terrestrial water storage GRACE CMIP6 climate models climate projections variability |
| title | Emerging Changes in Terrestrial Water Storage Variability as a Target for Future Satellite Gravity Missions |
| title_full | Emerging Changes in Terrestrial Water Storage Variability as a Target for Future Satellite Gravity Missions |
| title_fullStr | Emerging Changes in Terrestrial Water Storage Variability as a Target for Future Satellite Gravity Missions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Emerging Changes in Terrestrial Water Storage Variability as a Target for Future Satellite Gravity Missions |
| title_short | Emerging Changes in Terrestrial Water Storage Variability as a Target for Future Satellite Gravity Missions |
| title_sort | emerging changes in terrestrial water storage variability as a target for future satellite gravity missions |
| topic | terrestrial water storage GRACE CMIP6 climate models climate projections variability |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/23/3898 |
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