HR: 1340h
AN: H23D-1157    [Abstracts]
TI: GRACE captured the drought associated with the 2003 European heat wave
AU: * Andersen, O B
EM: oa@kms.dk
AF: Ole B. Andersen, Rentemestervej 8, Copenhagen, 2400 Denmark
AU: Hinderer, J
EM: hinderer@bowie.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: Jacques Hinderer, University of Strasburg, Strasburg, 0000 France
AU: Senevira, S
EM: senevira@janus.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: Sonia Senevira, NASA - GSFC, , Greenbelt, Md 20771 United States
AU: Viterbo, P
EM: viterbo@ecmwf.int
AF: Pedro Viterbo, ECMWF, Reading, 0000 United Kingdom
AB: One of the most poorly observed components of the climate system is continental-scale water storage and its variations on annual to interannual scales. Indeed, available ground observations are generally of very small spatial or temporal scope and models driven with observed forcing seldom agree on simulated terrestrial water storage The recently launched twin satellite mission GRACE has the capability of detecting mean seasonal variations of terrestrial water storage for large river basins. We demonstrate here the skill of GRACE data in detecting interannual variability in terrestrial water storage, in particular two drought events associated with record heat waves in Central Europe (2003) and western Russia (2002). GRACE water storage changes are corroborated with indirect estimates of soil water changes based on atmospheric analysis and with in-situ observations of gravity changes using super-conducting gravimeters in Europe, both confirming the validity of these results.
DE: 1243 Space geodetic surveys
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting