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Annual Variations in Water Storage and Precipitation in the Amazon Basin: Bounding Sink Terms in the Terrestrial Hydrological Balance using GRACE Satellite Gravity DataWe combine satellite gravity data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and precipitation measurements from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center's (CPC) Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP) and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), over the period from mid-2002 to mid-2006, to investigate the relative importance of sink (runoff and evaporation) and source (precipitation) terms in the hydrological balance of the Amazon Basin. When linear and quadratic terms are removed, the time series of land water storage variations estimated from GRACE exhibits a dominant annual signal of 250 mm peak-to-peak, which is equivalent to a water volume change of approximately 1800 cubic kilometers. A comparison of this trend with accumulated (i.e., integrated) precipitation shows excellent agreement and no evidence of basin saturation. The agreement indicates that the net runoff and evaporation contributes significantly less than precipitation to the annual hydrological mass balance. Indeed, raw residuals between the detrended water storage and precipitation anomalies range from plus or minus 40 mm. This range is consistent with streamflow measurements from the region, although the latter are characterized by a stronger annual signal than ow residuals, suggesting that runoff and evaporation may act to partially cancel each other.
Document ID
20080034473
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Crowley, John W.
(Harvard Univ. Cambridge, MA, United States)
Mitrovica, Jerry X.
(Toronto Univ. Ontario, Canada)
Bailey, Richard C.
(Toronto Univ. Ontario, Canada)
Tamisiea, Mark E.
(Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Cambridge, MA, United States)
Davis, James L.
(Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Cambridge, MA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
April 26, 2007
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geodesy
Publisher: Springer-Verlag G.m.b.H. and Co. K.G.
Volume: 82
Issue: 1
ISSN: 0949-7714
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG04GF09G
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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