Publications related to the GRACE Missions (no abstracts)

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Interannual Variations Of Terrestrial Water Storage In The East African Rift Region

Boergens, Eva, Güntner, Andreas, Sips, Mike, Schwatke, Christian, and Dobslaw, Henryk, 2024. Interannual Variations Of Terrestrial Water Storage In The East African Rift Region. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 28:4733–4754, doi:10.5194/hess-28-4733-2024.

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@ARTICLE{2024HESS...28.4733B,
       author = {{Boergens}, Eva and {G{\"u}ntner}, Andreas and {Sips}, Mike and {Schwatke}, Christian and {Dobslaw}, Henryk},
        title = "{Interannual Variations Of Terrestrial Water Storage In The East African Rift Region}",
      journal = {Hydrology and Earth System Sciences},
         year = 2024,
        month = oct,
       volume = {28},
        pages = {4733-4754},
     abstract = "{The US{\textendash}German GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate
        Experiment, 2002{\textendash}2017) and GRACE-FO (GRACE Follow-
        On, since 2018) satellite missions observe terrestrial water
        storage (TWS) variations. Over 20 years of data allow for
        investigating interannual variations beyond linear trends and
        seasonal signals. However, the origin of observed TWS changes
        cannot be determined solely with GRACE and GRACE-FO
        observations. This study focuses on the northern part of the
        East African Rift around the lakes of Turkana, Victoria, and
        Tanganyika. It aims to characterise and analyse the interannual
        TWS variations compared to meteorological and geodetic
        observations of the water storage compartments (surface water,
        soil moisture, and groundwater). We apply the STL (Seasonal-
        Trend decomposition using LOESS) method to decompose the signal
        into a seasonal signal, an interannual signal, and residuals. By
        clustering the interannual TWS dynamics for the African
        continent, we define the exact outline of the study region. We
        observe a TWS decrease until 2006, followed by a steady rise
        until 2016, and then the most significant TWS gain in Africa in
        2019 and 2020. Besides meteorological variability, surface water
        storage variations in the lakes explain large parts of the TWS
        decrease before 2006. The storage dynamics of Lake Victoria
        alone contribute up to 50 \% of these TWS changes. On the other
        hand, the significant TWS increase around 2020 can be attributed
        to nearly equal rises in groundwater and surface water storage,
        which coincide with a substantial precipitation surplus. Soil
        moisture explains most of the seasonal variability but does not
        influence the interannual variations. As Lake Victoria dominates
        the surface water storage variations in the region, we further
        investigate the lake and the downstream Nile River. The
        Nalubaale Dam regulates Lake Victoria's outflow. Water level
        observations from satellite altimetry reveal the impact of dam
        operations on downstream discharge and on TWS decreases in the
        drought years before 2006. On the other hand, we do not find
        evidence for an impact of the Nalubaale Dam regulations on the
        strong TWS increase after 2019.}",
          doi = {10.5194/hess-28-4733-2024},
       adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024HESS...28.4733B},
      adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

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