The potential estimation of variations of regional water storage in Yellow River basin inferred from GRACE

摘要

The shortage of water resource in Yellow River basin area has been steadily continued for 50 or more years due to drought, excessive uses for irrigations and industries. The evaluation of the terrestrial water resource needs to be done in hopes of planning the environment treatment and development in the region. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) project presents possibility of determining time-variations of the Earth's gravity. The effects of fluid mass redistributions at the surface of the Earth can been recorded monthly and globally. GRACE provides an alternative mean for monitoring the changes of regional water storage in the drought region using time-lap global gravity survey. This paper introduces assessments of the gravity and geoid changes caused by variation of water storage. A mass model of unequal thickness was applied to estimate the gravity produced by water. The maximum amplitude of the gravity is about 3 microgals and geoid changes can reach 18 millimeters while the variation of 15% terrestrial water storage in Yellow River basin.