Challenges in applying water budget framework for estimating groundwater storage changes from GRACE observations

Abstract

The application of a water budget framework to isolate Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) groundwater storage anomalies (GRACE-GWA) from GRACE terrestrial water storage anomalies (GRACE-TWSA) is hindered by the lack of direct observations of water budget components. In GRACE groundwater studies, water budget components are frequently applied to isolate changes in a storage component from various auxiliary methods (e.g., land surface or hydrology models, reanalysis, or remote sensing) and are used as a supplement to, or a substitute for, in-situ measurements when direct observations are sparse or unavailable. The contribution of select auxiliary datasets to isolate GRACE-GWA from GRACE-TWSA is an enduring quandary, attributed to the various assumptions applied to resemble hydrologic processes in model formulations. This study systematically allocates water budget components from assorted auxiliary sources to demonstrate bias and distortion of GRACE-GWA resulting simply from water storage component data selection. Whereas previous GRACE-GWA studies used combinations of water budget component datasets with uncertainty derived from the variance of the combined water budget components, this study applies single estimates for each component to measure bias and variability. An initial comparative analysis focused on three basins with suitable in-situ groundwater observations and complex hydrology stores (e.g., large lakes and seasonal snow cover), with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.32 to 0.89. Our systematic analysis was extended to 12 additional basins that capture a range of hydrologic characteristics to highlight the inconsistency in GRACE-GWA estimates. The variability evident in GRACE-GWA estimates highlights that the selection of water budget components carries the risk of misleading outcomes when disaggregating GRACE-TWSA into GRACE-GWA. Our water budget intercomparison provides an important assessment of the limitation in extraction of GRACE-GWA, highlighting the usefulness of comprehensive appraisal of water budget components for GRACE groundwater studies.