Using NASA Satellite and Modeling Resources for Monitoring Groundwater Availability and Variability

John D. Bolten Hydrological Sciences Lab

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD

Observations from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission provide estimates of terrestrial water storage variability (the sum of groundwater, soil water, surface water, snow, and ice).

Changes in Annual-Mean Terrestrial Water Storage Between 2009 and 2010

Source: Matt Rodell, NASA GSFC

Identifying Areas of Water Stress and Replenishment

Water Storage Anomalies in Northwestern India

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Observed GroundwaterGRACE Groundwater Mississippi River basin

Illinois

When combined with a numerical model (top) or in situ observations (bottom), groundwater can be isolated from GRACE terrestrial water storage observations.

GRACE groundwater estimate

Groundwater well observations

GRACE groundwater estimates (smoothed)Rodell et al., Hydrogeology, 2006

Yeh et al., WRR, 2006

Quantifying Changes in Soil Water Storage is Essential for Sustainable Water Management

Source: Matt Rodell, NASA GSFC

JPL Airborne Radar Sounder for High-Resolution Mapping of Shallow Aquifers

Aircraft - based radar provides high-resolution mapping of the regional distribution of shallow aquifers in the hyper-arid areas.

Source: Essam Heggy, JPL

Instrument1. Short pulse sounding radar (< 20 ns) at 40 and

75 MHz center frequencies2. 20 and 40 MHz bandwidths at 40 and 75 MHz3. Multiple antennas4. Platform: Kuwait police Dauphin helicopter and

Kuwait Air Force P3

NASA Points of Contact

• John Bolten - NASA GSFC (john.bolten@nasa.gov)• Matt Rodell - NASA GSFC (matthew.rodell@nasa.gov)• Essam Heggy - NASA JPL (eheggy@jpl.nasa.gov)