Terrestrial total water storage dynamics of Australia's recent dry and wet events

Abstract

Australia recently experienced a long-term continental drought (“big dry”, 2001–2009) followed by an anomalous wet two-year period (“big wet”, 2010–2011). Despite the significance of the two extreme events, continental-wide information regarding the effects of the high and low precipitation conditions on the hydrological components, stress and recovery is not available. In this paper, we use terrestrial total water storage changes (ATWS) from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and precipitation data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spanning from 2002 to 2013, where ATWS represents the main source of water available for human consumption, agriculture and natural ecosystems. We rely on a combination of temporal trend analysis and spatial statistics methods in order to evaluate the terrestrial total water storage (TWS) dynamics and the relationship between TWS and rainfall during the “big dry” and “big wet” events. Here we report the occurrence of hydrological cycle intensification during the study period in Australia which exhibited strong spatial variations: the wet areas (the northern and northeast regions) got wetter while the dry areas (the west and interior of the continent) became drier. By contrast, in southeastern Australia TWS changes over time showed sudden extreme responses to both events. Our results constitute a step beyond quantifying droughts/anomalous wet years that rely solely on precipitation data. This work demonstrates the ability of TWS observations as a significant indicator of hydrological system performance during hydroclimatic events and also an important tool for understanding continental-wide and regional spatial and temporal patterns of water availability.