Cascading dynamics of the hydrologic cycle in california explored through observations and model simulations

Elias Massoud; Michael Turmon; John Reager; Jonathan Hobbs; Zhen Liu; Cédric H. David

doi:10.3390/geosciences10020071

Cascading dynamics of the hydrologic cycle in california explored through observations and model simulations

Elias Massoud, Michael Turmon, John Reager, Jonathan Hobbs, Zhen Liu, Cédric H. David

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

As drought occurs in a region it can have cascading effects through the water cycle. In this study, we explore the temporal co‐evolution of various components of the hydrologic cycle in California from 2002 to 2018. We combine information from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) suite of models, and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) reservoir levels to analyze dynamics of Total Water Storage (TWS), soil moisture, snow pack, large reservoir storage, and ultimately, groundwater. For TWS, a trend of −2 cm/yr is observed during the entire time period of our analysis; however, this rate increases to about −5 cm/yr during drought periods (2006−2010 and 2012−2016). Results indicate that the majority of the loss in TWS is caused by groundwater depletion. Using proper error accounting, we are able to identify the start, the peak, and the ending of the drought periods for each individual water state variable in the study domain. We show that snow and soil moisture are impacted earlier and recover faster than surface water and groundwater. The annual and year‐to‐year dynamics shown in our results portray a clear cascading effect of the hydrologic cycle on the scale of 8−16 months.

Original language	English
Article number	71
Journal	Geosciences (Switzerland)
Volume	10
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10020071
State	Published - Feb 2020
Externally published	Yes

Funding

The research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). Copyright 2020. All data used in this study are publicly available. The GRACE data set is available at https://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/data/get‐data/, the NLDAS model output data are available at https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets?keywords=NLDAS, and the DWR dats can be found at http://cdec.water.ca.gov/reservoir.html. The software package for wavelet analysis can be found at https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/47985‐cross‐wavelet‐and‐wavelet‐coherence.

Funders	Funder number
National Aeronautics and Space Administration	80NM0018D0004

Keywords

California
Drought
GRACE
Hydrologic cycle
NLDAS
Water depletion

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.3390/geosciences10020071

Cite this

@article{cf8594f78bad466bb061429c57d6d10a,

title = "Cascading dynamics of the hydrologic cycle in california explored through observations and model simulations",

abstract = "As drought occurs in a region it can have cascading effects through the water cycle. In this study, we explore the temporal co‐evolution of various components of the hydrologic cycle in California from 2002 to 2018. We combine information from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) suite of models, and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) reservoir levels to analyze dynamics of Total Water Storage (TWS), soil moisture, snow pack, large reservoir storage, and ultimately, groundwater. For TWS, a trend of −2 cm/yr is observed during the entire time period of our analysis; however, this rate increases to about −5 cm/yr during drought periods (2006−2010 and 2012−2016). Results indicate that the majority of the loss in TWS is caused by groundwater depletion. Using proper error accounting, we are able to identify the start, the peak, and the ending of the drought periods for each individual water state variable in the study domain. We show that snow and soil moisture are impacted earlier and recover faster than surface water and groundwater. The annual and year‐to‐year dynamics shown in our results portray a clear cascading effect of the hydrologic cycle on the scale of 8−16 months.",

keywords = "California, Drought, GRACE, Hydrologic cycle, NLDAS, Water depletion",

author = "Elias Massoud and Michael Turmon and John Reager and Jonathan Hobbs and Zhen Liu and David, {C{\'e}dric H.}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.",

year = "2020",

month = feb,

doi = "10.3390/geosciences10020071",

language = "English",

volume = "10",

journal = "Geosciences (Switzerland)",

issn = "2076-3263",

publisher = "MDPI",

number = "2",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Cascading dynamics of the hydrologic cycle in california explored through observations and model simulations

AU - Massoud, Elias

AU - Turmon, Michael

AU - Reager, John

AU - Hobbs, Jonathan

AU - Liu, Zhen

AU - David, Cédric H.

PY - 2020/2

Y1 - 2020/2

N2 - As drought occurs in a region it can have cascading effects through the water cycle. In this study, we explore the temporal co‐evolution of various components of the hydrologic cycle in California from 2002 to 2018. We combine information from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) suite of models, and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) reservoir levels to analyze dynamics of Total Water Storage (TWS), soil moisture, snow pack, large reservoir storage, and ultimately, groundwater. For TWS, a trend of −2 cm/yr is observed during the entire time period of our analysis; however, this rate increases to about −5 cm/yr during drought periods (2006−2010 and 2012−2016). Results indicate that the majority of the loss in TWS is caused by groundwater depletion. Using proper error accounting, we are able to identify the start, the peak, and the ending of the drought periods for each individual water state variable in the study domain. We show that snow and soil moisture are impacted earlier and recover faster than surface water and groundwater. The annual and year‐to‐year dynamics shown in our results portray a clear cascading effect of the hydrologic cycle on the scale of 8−16 months.

AB - As drought occurs in a region it can have cascading effects through the water cycle. In this study, we explore the temporal co‐evolution of various components of the hydrologic cycle in California from 2002 to 2018. We combine information from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) suite of models, and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) reservoir levels to analyze dynamics of Total Water Storage (TWS), soil moisture, snow pack, large reservoir storage, and ultimately, groundwater. For TWS, a trend of −2 cm/yr is observed during the entire time period of our analysis; however, this rate increases to about −5 cm/yr during drought periods (2006−2010 and 2012−2016). Results indicate that the majority of the loss in TWS is caused by groundwater depletion. Using proper error accounting, we are able to identify the start, the peak, and the ending of the drought periods for each individual water state variable in the study domain. We show that snow and soil moisture are impacted earlier and recover faster than surface water and groundwater. The annual and year‐to‐year dynamics shown in our results portray a clear cascading effect of the hydrologic cycle on the scale of 8−16 months.

KW - California

KW - Drought

KW - GRACE

KW - Hydrologic cycle

KW - NLDAS

KW - Water depletion

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079702613&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/geosciences10020071

DO - 10.3390/geosciences10020071

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85079702613

SN - 2076-3263

VL - 10

JO - Geosciences (Switzerland)

JF - Geosciences (Switzerland)

IS - 2

M1 - 71

ER -

Cascading dynamics of the hydrologic cycle in california explored through observations and model simulations

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this