Abstract
Improved data quality of extended record of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite gravity solutions enables better understanding of terrestrial water storage (TWS) variations. Connections of TWS and climate change are critical to investigate regional and global water cycles. In this study, we provide a comprehensive analysis of global connections between interannual TWS changes and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, using multiple sources of data, including GRACE measurements, land surface model (LSM) predictions and precipitation observations. We use cross-correlation and coherence spectrum analysis to examine global connections between interannual TWS changes and the Niño 3.4 index, and select four river basins (Amazon, Orinoco, Colorado, and Lena) for more detailed analysis. The results indicate that interannual TWS changes are strongly correlated with ENSO over much of the globe, with maximum cross-correlation coefficients up to ~0.70, well above the 95% significance level (~0.29) derived by the Monte Carlo experiments. The strongest correlations are found in tropical and subtropical regions, especially in the Amazon, Orinoco, and La Plata basins. While both GRACE and LSM TWS estimates show reasonably good correlations with ENSO and generally consistent spatial correlation patterns, notably higher correlations are found between GRACE TWS and ENSO. The existence of significant correlations in middle–high latitudes shows the large-scale impact of ENSO on the global water cycle.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the reviewers for their insightful comments, which led to improved presentation of the results. The authors are also grateful to the membership of the Laboratory of Astronomy and Space Technology Applications at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences. This study was supported by the joint PhD scholarship from the Chinese Scholarship Council, the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (No. 17ZR1435600), the Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment and Geodesy, Ministry of Education, Wuhan University (16-01-05), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFB0501405), and the Special Program Fund of Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (Y196591009). This work made use of the High Performance Computing Resource in the Core Facility for Advanced Research Computing at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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Ni, S., Chen, J., Wilson, C.R. et al. Global Terrestrial Water Storage Changes and Connections to ENSO Events. Surv Geophys 39, 1–22 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-017-9421-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-017-9421-7