Abstract
Water is essential for human survival and well-being, and important to virtually all sectors of the economy. In the aridzone of China’s west, water resource is the controlling factor on the distribution of human settlements. Water cycle variation is sensitive to temperature and precipitation, which are influenced by human activity and climate change. Satellite observations of Earth’s time-variable gravity field from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, which enable direct measurement of changes of total terrestrial water storage, could be useful to aid this modelling. In this pilot study, TWS change from 2002 to 2013 obtained from GRACE satellite mission over the Kaidu River Basin in Xinjiang, China is presented. Precipitation and temperature data from in-situ station and National Satellite Meteorological Centre of China (NSMC) are analysed to examine whether there is a statistically significant correlation between them.
Highlights
The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, situated in northwest China, is in the hinterland of the Eurasian continent and stretches from 35°N to 50°N and 73°E to 95°E (Figure 1)
Data from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, which measure the variation in the gravity field, is used to estimate the spatio-temporal TWSC during the study period (2002-2013)
The monthly GRACE gravity field consists of a set of spherical harmonic coefficients
Summary
The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, situated in northwest China, is in the hinterland of the Eurasian continent and stretches from 35°N to 50°N and 73°E to 95°E (Figure 1). It comprises approximately 1.66 million km and accounts for 16.7% of total land area of China. Water cycle variation is sensitive to both human activity and climate change. This measurement is limited by the available data in arid endorheic river basins is typically limited in terms of extent and quality. Satellite observations of Earth’s time-variable gravity field from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, which enable direct measurement of changes of total terrestrial water storage, could be useful to aid this modelling
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