HR: 1340h
AN: H43B-0502    [Abstracts]
TI: A GRACE Assessment of the Seasonal Cycle of Total Water Storage from Several GCMs.
AU: * Swenson, S C
EM: swensosc@colorado.edu
AF: University of Colorado, CB 390 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80304
AU: Milly, P
EM: cmilly@usgs.gov
AF: United States Geological Survey, GFDL/NOAA P. O. Box 308, Princeton, NJ 08542
AB: The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) time-variable gravity measurements are a relatively new and innovative data type for hydrology. At approximately monthly intervals, the GRACE Project constructs a new, monthly averaged estimate of the Earth's gravity field. From month-to-month changes in these GRACE gravity fields, changes in total terrestrial water storage can be inferred. Five global climate models (GCMs) submitted to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Fourth Assessment all variables necessary to describe the total water (i.e. surface and subsurface water, river and lake storage, snow and ice) modeled by each GCM. We compare these estimates of the seasonal cycle of total water storage to that estimated by GRACE. Our results show good agreement in the globally averaged seasonal cycle, and significant regional differences.
DE: 1217 Time variable gravity (7223, 7230)
DE: 1640 Remote sensing (1855)
DE: 1655 Water cycles (1836)
DE: 1843 Land/atmosphere interactions (1218, 1631, 3322)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005