An Abrupt Decline in Global Terrestrial Water Storage and Its Relationship with Sea Level Change.

ABSTRACT: As observed by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow On (GRACE-FO) missions, global terrestrial water storage (TWS), excluding ice sheets and glaciers, declined rapidly between May 2014 and March 2016. By 2023, it had not yet recovered, with the upper end of its range remaining 1 cm equivalent height of water below the upper end of the earlier range. Beginning with a record-setting drought in northeastern South America, a series of droughts on five continents helped to prevent global TWS from rebounding. While back-to-back El Niño events are largely responsible for the South American drought and others in the 2014-2016 timeframe, the possibility exists that global warming has contributed to a net drying of the land since then, through enhanced evapotranspirat

SUBMITTER: Rodell M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11671563 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature