The GHYRAF (Gravity and Hydrology in Africa) experiment: Description and first results

This paper is the first presentation of a project called GHYRAF (Gravity and Hydrology in Africa) devoted to the detailed comparison between models and multidisciplinary observations (ground and satellite gravity, geodesy, hydrology, meteorology) of the variations of water storage in Africa from the Sahara arid part to the monsoon equatorial part. We describe the various actions planned in this project. We first detail the actions planned in gravimetry which consist in two main surface gravity experiments: on the one hand the periodic repetition of absolute gravity measurements along a north–south monsoonal gradient of rainfall in West Africa, going from Tamanrasset (20 mm/year) in southern Algeria to Djougou (1200 mm/year) in central Benin; on the other hand the continuous measurements at Djougou (Benin) with a superconducting gravimeter to monitor with a higher sampling rate the gravity changes related to an extreme hydrological cycle. Another section describes the actions planned in GPS which will maintain and develop the present-day existing network in West Africa. The third type of actions deals with hydrology and we review the three sites that will be investigated in this joint hydrogeophysics project namely Wankama (near Niamey) and Bagara (near Diffa) in the Niger Sahelian zone and Nalohou (near Djougou) in the Benin monsoon zone. We also address the question of the ground truth of satellite-derived missions; in this context the GHYRAF project will lead to test the hydrology models by comparison both with in situ and satellite data such as GRACE, as well as to an important increase of our knowledge of the seasonal water cycle in Africa. We finally present preliminary results in GPS based on the analysis of the vertical motion of the Djougou site. The resulting absolute gravity changes related to the 2008 monsoon are finally given.     

Hydro-gravimetry in West-Africa: First results from the Djougou (Benin) superconducting gravimeter

The increasing number of hydro-gravimetry studies proves the rising interest of the hydrology community toward this monitoring method. The accuracy of superconducting gravimeters (SG) potentially allows the retrieval of small water storage changes (WSC) down to a few millimeters of equivalent water thickness. However, the importance of corrections applied to SG data to achieve such a precision in gravity residuals should be recalled. The Djougou permanent gravity station presented in this paper and located in northern Benin, West-Africa, provides a good opportunity to review these considerations. This station is equipped since July 2010 with the superconducting gravimeter SG-060 aimed at deriving WSC at different time-scales, daily to inter-annual. In this area, WSC are (1) part of the control system for evapotranspiration (ET) process, a key variable of the West-African monsoon cycle and (2) the state variable for resource management, a critical issue in storage-poor hard rock basement contexts such as in northern Benin. The potential for deriving WSC from time-lapse gravity data partly depends on environmental features such as topography and the instrument shelter. Therefore, this issue is addressed first, with the background idea that such sensitivity analysis should be undertaken before setting up any new instrument. In Djougou, local topography is quite flat leading to a theoretical straightforward relationship between gravity changes and WSC, close to the standard Bouguer value. However, the shelter plays a significant masking role, which is the principal limitation to the retrieval of fast hydrological processes such as ET following a rain event. Several issues concerning classical gravity corrections are also addressed in the paper. These include gap-filling procedures during rain-events and drift estimates for short time series. Special attention is provided to atmospheric corrections, and different approaches are tested: a simple scalar admittance, a filtered scalar admittance, a frequency-dependent admittance and direct atmospheric loading calculations. It is shown that the physically based approach of direct loading calculations performs better in both residual minimization and ET retrieval. Moreover, non-local hydrological effects are investigated and account for about 20% of the gravity residuals. Finally, gravity residuals are briefly analyzed at two distinct time scales: rapid (up to a few days) and seasonal. At the rapid time-scale, it is shown that ET retrieval is hardly achievable given shelter size and state-of-the-art atmospheric corrections. Still, mean values retrieved from this study are in accordance with known values of potential ET and lateral flow. Direct comparison of gravity changes with hydrological data (neutron probe monitoring and water table levels) show some discrepancies, particularly for the hydrological year of 2011, for which all hydrological data show a deficit, but SG and FG5 data do not. This preliminary analysis both provides a basis and call for further hydro-gravity modeling, to comprehensively investigate the water-cycle at the Djougou station.     

Retrieval of Large-Scale Hydrological Signals in Africa from GRACE Time-Variable Gravity Fields

Since its launch in April 2002, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission is recording the Earth’s time-variable gravity field with temporal and spatial resolutions of typically 7–30?days and a few hundreds of kilometers, allowing the monitoring of continental water storage variations from both continental and river-basin scales. We investigate here large scale hydrological variations in Africa using different GRACE spherical harmonic solutions, using different processing strategies (constrained and unconstrained solutions). We compare our GRACE estimates to different global hydrology models, with different land-surface schemes and also precipitation forcing. We validate GRACE observations through two different techniques: first by studying desert areas, providing an estimate of the precision. Then we compare GRACE recovered mass variations of main lakes to volume changes derived from radar altimetry measurements. We also study the differences between different publicly available precipitation datasets from both space measurements and ground rain gauges, and their impact on soil-moisture estimates.     

Detection of Continental Hydrology and Glaciology Signals from GRACE: A Review

Since its launch in March 2002, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) has provided a global mapping of the time-variations of the Earth’s gravity field. Tiny variations of gravity from monthly to decadal time scales are mainly due to redistributions of water mass inside the surface fluid envelops of our planet (i.e., atmosphere, ocean and water storage on continents). In this article, we present a review of the major contributions of GRACE satellite gravimetry in global and regional hydrology. To date, many studies have focused on the ability of GRACE to detect, for the very first time, the time-variations of continental water storage (including surface waters, soil moisture, groundwater, as well as snow pack at high latitudes) at the unprecedented resolution of ~400–500 km. As no global complete network of surface hydrological observations exists, the advances of satellite gravimetry to monitor terrestrial water storage are significant and unique for determining changes in total water storage and water balance closure at regional and continental scales.     

Multivariate Prediction of Total Water Storage Changes Over West Africa from Multi-Satellite Data

West African countries have been exposed to changes in rainfall patterns over the last decades, including a significant negative trend. This causes adverse effects on water resources of the region, for instance, reduced freshwater availability. Assessing and predicting large-scale total water storage (TWS) variations are necessary for West Africa, due to its environmental, social, and economical impacts. Hydrological models, however, may perform poorly over West Africa due to data scarcity. This study describes a new statistical, data-driven approach for predicting West African TWS changes from (past) gravity data obtained from the gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE), and (concurrent) rainfall data from the tropical rainfall measuring mission (TRMM) and sea surface temperature (SST) data over the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. The proposed method, therefore, capitalizes on the availability of remotely sensed observations for predicting monthly TWS, a quantity which is hard to observe in the field but important for measuring regional energy balance, as well as for agricultural, and water resource management. Major teleconnections within these data sets were identified using independent component analysis and linked via low-degree autoregressive models to build a predictive framework. After a learning phase of 72 months, our approach predicted TWS from rainfall and SST data alone that fitted to the observed GRACE-TWS better than that from a global hydrological model. Our results indicated a fit of 79 % and 67 % for the first-year prediction of the two dominant annual and inter-annual modes of TWS variations. This fit reduces to 62 % and 57 % for the second year of projection. The proposed approach, therefore, represents strong potential to predict the TWS over West Africa up to 2 years. It also has the potential to bridge the present GRACE data gaps of 1 month about each 162 days as well as a—hopefully—limited gap between GRACE and the GRACE follow-on mission over West Africa. The method presented could also be used to generate a near-real-time GRACE forecast over the regions that exhibit strong teleconnections.     

Isotope methods for management of shared aquifers in northern Africa

Access to fresh water is one of the major issues of northern and sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the fresh water used for drinking and irrigation is obtained from large ground water basins where there is minor contemporary recharge and the aquifers cross national borders. These aquifers include the Nubian Aquifer System shared by Chad, Egypt, Libya, and Sudan; the Iullemeden Aquifer System, extending over Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Benin, and Algeria; and the Northwest Sahara Aquifer System shared by Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia. These resources are subject to increased exploitation and may be severely stressed if not managed properly as witnessed already by declining water levels. In order to make appropriate decisions for the sustainable management of these shared water resources, planners and managers in different countries need an improved knowledge base of hydrological information. Three technical cooperation projects related to aquifer systems will be implemented by the International Atomic Energy Agency, in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and United Nations Development Programme/Global Environmental Facility. These projects focus on isotope hydrology studies to better quantify ground water recharge and dynamics. The multiple isotope approach combining commonly used isotopes 18O and 2H together with more recently developed techniques (chlorofluorocarbons, 36Cl, noble gases) will be applied to improve the conceptual model to study stratification and ground water flows. Moreover, the isotopes will be an important indicator of changes in the aquifer due to water abstraction, and therefore they will assist in the effort to establish a sustainable ground water management.     

Climate teleconnections influence on West Africa's terrestrial water storage

There is some evidence of rapid changes in the global atmosphere and hydrological cycle caused by the influence of climate variability. In West Africa, such changes impact directly on water resources leading to incessant extreme hydro‐meteorological conditions. This study examines the association of three global climate teleconnections—El‐Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), and Atlantic Multi‐decadal Oscillation (AMO) with changes in terrestrial water storage (TWS) derived from both Modern‐Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA, 1980–2015) and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE, 2002–2014). In the Sahel region, positive phase of AMO coincided with above‐normal rainfall (wet conditions) and the negative phase with drought conditions and confirms the observed statistically significant association (r = 0.62) between AMO and the temporal evolutions of standardised precipitation index. This relationship corroborates the observed presence of AMO‐driven TWS in much of the Sahel region (though considerably weak in some areas). Although ENSO appears to be more associated with GRACE‐derived TWS over the Volta basin (r =?0.40), this study also shows a strong presence of AMO‐ and ENSO‐induced TWS derived from MERRA reanalysis data in the coastal West African countries and most of the regions below latitude 10°N. The observed presence of ENSO‐ and AMO‐driven TWS is noticeable in tropical areas with relatively high annual/bimodal rainfall and strong inter‐annual variations in surface water. The AMO has a wider footprint and sphere of influence on the region's TWS and suggests the important role of North Atlantic Ocean. IOD‐related TWS also exists in West Africa and its influence on the region's hydrology maybe secondary and somewhat complementary. Nonetheless, presumptive evidence from the study indicates that ENSO and AMO are the two major climatic indices more likely to impact on West Africa's TWS.     

Modeling the water resources of the Black and Mediterranean Sea river basins and their impact on regional mass changes

For the first time, a dedicated release of the hydrology and water use model WaterGAP3, has been developed to spatially explicit calculate hydrological fluxes within river basins draining into the Mediterranean and Black Sea. The main differences between the new regional version of the global WaterGAP3 model and the previously applied global version WaterGAP2 can be found in the spatial resolution, snow modeling, and water use modeling. Comparison with observations shows that WaterGAP3 features a more realistic representation of modeled river runoff and inflow into both seas. WaterGAP3 generates more inflow to both seas than WaterGAP2. In the WaterGAP3 simulation, contributions to the total runoff into the Black Sea from individual discharge regions show in general a good agreement to climatology derived runoff, but lesser importance of Georgian rivers for the basin's water. After the successful model validation WaterGAP3 has been applied to correct estimates of seawater mass derived from the GRACE gravity mission and to account for freshwater inflow into both basins. The performance of the WaterGAP3 regional solution has been evaluated by comparing the seawater mass derived from GRACE corrected for the leakage of continental hydrology, to an independent estimate derived from steric-corrected satellite altimetry with steric correction from regional oceanographic models. The agreement is higher in the Mediterranean Sea than in the Black Sea. Results using WaterGAP3 and WaterGAP2 are not significantly different. However the agreement with the altimetry-derived results is higher using WaterGAP2, due to the smaller annual amplitude of the continental hydrology leakage from WaterGAP3. We conclude that the regional model WaterGAP3 is capable of realistically quantifying water mass variation in the region, further developments have been identified.     

A search for atmospheric effects on gravity at different time and space scales

We investigate in this paper various approaches to correct gravity changes for the effect of atmospheric pressure changes. Two specific locations are considered: Strasbourg (France) as mid-latitude station, where regular pressure fronts occur and Djougou (Benin) as equatorial station with large thermally driven S₁ and S₂ waves of planetary extent. We first review the classical approaches based on a constant or frequency-dependent admittance using only local pressure and gravity data. We consider then a model of atmospheric loading and show the barometric admittance in terms of elastic, Newtonian and total load, as a function of the distance from the station. We consider both a 2D pressure model (surface loading) and a 2.5D model, where the density decreases with height (standard atmosphere). Assuming horizontal advection in the atmospheric dynamics, we convert this spatially dependent admittance into a frequency-dependent admittance. Using global pressure data from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) at about 12 km spatial resolution and 3 h sampling, we compute the model-predicted pressure admittance for Djougou and Strasbourg and we simulate the frequency dependence inferred from gravity and pressure observations below 4 cycle per day. A long gravity and pressure data set (1996–2013) from Strasbourg is used to investigate the low frequency part of the pressure admittance while a common 2.5 year data set (August 2010–February 2013) for Strasbourg and Djougou is then analyzed to investigate the high frequency part of the admittance. In both cases, our results are in close agreement with the predictions inferred from an atmospheric 2.5D loading model with a distance–time relationship due to horizontal advection. The frequency dependence of the barometric admittance is explained by the competing contributions of Newtonian attraction and elastic surface deformation according to the distance from the gravimeter. In the far field (low frequencies), the magnitude of the admittance decreases with frequency because of the combined elasticity effect and Newtonian attraction (when the atmosphere is below the horizon) while, on the contrary, in the near field (high frequencies), elasticity becomes negligible and the pressure admittance mainly decreases with increasing frequency because of the decreasing attraction effect of the atmospheric masses inside the cylindrical pressure cell centered on the sensor location of decreasing radius. In the last part, we show that there is variability in time in the pressure admittance for both stations.     

Assessment of the Global and Regional Land Hydrosphere and Its Impact on the Balance of the Geophysical Excitation Function of Polar Motion

The impact of continental hydrological loading from land water, snow and ice on polar motion excitation, calculated as hydrological angular momentum (HAM), is difficult to estimate, and not as much is known about it as about atmospheric angular momentum (AAM) and oceanic angular momentum (OAM). In this paper, regional hydrological excitations to polar motion are investigated using monthly terrestrial water storage data derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission and from the five models of land hydrology. The results show that the areas where the variance shows large variability are similar for the different models of land hydrology and for the GRACE data. Areas which have a small amplitude on the maps make an important contribution to the global hydrological excitation function of polar motion. The comparison of geodetic residuals and global hydrological excitation functions of polar motion shows that none of the hydrological excitation has enough energy to significantly improve the agreement between the observed geodetic excitation and geophysical ones.     

Seasonal Water Storage Variations as Impacted by Water Abstractions: Comparing the Output of a Global Hydrological Model with GRACE and GPS Observations

Better quantification of continental water storage variations is expected to improve our understanding of water flows, including evapotranspiration, runoff and river discharge as well as human water abstractions. For the first time, total water storage (TWS) on the land area of the globe as computed by the global water model WaterGAP (Water Global Assessment and Prognosis) was compared to both gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) and global positioning system (GPS) observations. The GRACE satellites sense the effect of TWS on the dynamic gravity field of the Earth. GPS reference points are displaced due to crustal deformation caused by time-varying TWS. Unfortunately, the worldwide coverage of the GPS tracking network is irregular, while GRACE provides global coverage albeit with low spatial resolution. Detrended TWS time series were analyzed by determining scaling factors for mean annual amplitude (f _GRACE) and time series of monthly TWS (f _GPS). Both GRACE and GPS indicate that WaterGAP underestimates seasonal variations of TWS on most of the land area of the globe. In addition, seasonal maximum TWS occurs 1 month earlier according to WaterGAP than according to GRACE on most land areas. While WaterGAP TWS is sensitive to the applied climate input data, none of the two data sets result in a clearly better fit to the observations. Due to the low number of GPS sites, GPS observations are less useful for validating global hydrological models than GRACE observations, but they serve to support the validity of GRACE TWS as observational target for hydrological modeling. For unknown reasons, WaterGAP appears to fit better to GPS than to GRACE. Both GPS and GRACE data, however, are rather uncertain due to a number of reasons, in particular in dry regions. It is not possible to benefit from either GPS or GRACE observations to monitor and quantify human water abstractions if only detrended (seasonal) TWS variations are considered. Regarding GRACE, this is mainly caused by the attenuation of the TWS differences between water abstraction variants due to the filtering required for GRACE TWS. Regarding GPS, station density is too low. Only if water abstractions lead to long-term changes in TWS by depletion or restoration of water storage in groundwater or large surface water bodies, GRACE may be used to support the quantification of human water abstractions.     

Gravity field variations from superconducting gravimeters for GRACE validation

The network of superconducting gravimeters (SG) of the ‘Global Geodynamics Project’ (GGP) offers the unique opportunity to supplement and validate the gravity field variations derived from the GRACE satellite mission. Because of the different spatial and temporal resolutions of the gravity data a combination of all datasets can be used to retrieve a maximum of information regarding mass transfers especially related to hydrology which is deployable as constraint for hydrological modelling.For a consistent combination of the datasets the gap between terrestrial data of superconducting and absolute gravimeters (AG) and from satellite data has to be bridged. A successful combination of SG and AG data could be realized for several stations which resulted in time series of the highest accuracy and long-term stability.In principle, the same reductions applied to GRACE data have to be taken into account for the terrestrial data. The separation of local hydrological effects in SG observations is crucial for the comparison with satellite-derived gravity data. It is shown that even for stations with a hydrological challenging situation such as Moxa/Germany local hydrology-induced effects can be successfully modelled.Currently, the study focuses on Europe with its dense and long-term observation network. Regarding the consistency of the SG gravity variations they are representative for a larger region. From a comparison with GRACE-derived gravity field changes, and the variations due to hydrological models a principle good agreement emerges.     

基于GRACE时变重力场的三峡水库补给水系水储量变化

利用22个月的GRACE时变重力场,反演了三峡水库补给水系的水储量变化,并按月给出了数值结果.与水文学同化模型（CPC）的两组比较说明基于GRACE重力的反演结果是合理的.当高斯平均半径为1000 km时,该区总水储量变化的峰谷差为14 cm,其年变化振幅为58 cm,相位为-408天,与CPC模型合成重力数据的反演结果进行比较,其总水储量变化均方差为13 cm,年变化振幅相差01 cm,相位相差10天.为进一步检验GRACE能否监测该区真实水储量变化,还将其反演结果与CPC模型的真实平均结果进行比较,结果发现总体均方差为21 cm,年变化振幅相差17 cm,相位相差93天.因此,第一种比较过高地估计了GRACE监测该区水储量变化的能力,第二种比较则较真实地反映了实际情况,尽管反演结果与水文学的结果差别较大,但仍然显示GRACE能监测该区每月的水储量变化.     

Terrestrial Water Storage Anomalies Associated with Drought in Southwestern USA from GPS Observations

The Earth’s surface fluid mass redistribution, e.g., groundwater depletion and severe drought, causes the elastic surface deformation, which can be measured by global positioning system (GPS). In this paper, the continuous GPS observations are used to estimate the terrestrial water storage (TWS) changes in southwestern USA, which have a good agreement with TWS changes derived from Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) and hydrological models. The seasonal variation is mostly located in the Rocky mountain range and Mississippi river watershed. The largest amplitude of the seasonal variation is between 12 and 15 cm in equivalent water thickness. The timing and duration of TWS anomalies caused by the severe drought in 2012 are observed by the GPS-derived TWS, which are confirmed by the GRACE results. Different hydrological models are further used for comparison with GPS and GRACE results. The magnitude of TWS depletion from GRACE and GPS observations during the drought is larger than that from hydrological models, which indicates that the drought was caused by comparable groundwater and surface water depletion. The interannual TWS changes from GPS are also consistent with the precipitation pattern over the past 6 years, which further confirms the severe drought in 2012. This study demonstrates that continuous GPS observations have the potential as real-time drought indicator.     

Hydrological cycle and water balance estimates for the megadune–lake region of the Badain Jaran Desert,China

The hydrology and water balance of megadunes and lakes have been investigated in the Badain Jaran Desert of China. Field observations and analyses of sand layer water content, field capacity, secondary salt content, and grain size reveal 3 types of important natural phenomenon: (a) vegetation bands on the leeward slope of the megadunes reflect the hydrological regime within the sandy vadose zone; (b) seepage, wet sand deposits, and secondary salt deposits indicate the pattern of water movement within the sandy vadose zone; (c) zones of groundwater seeps and descending springs around the lakes reflect the influence of the local topography on the hydrological regime of the megadunes. The seepage exposed on the sloping surface of the megadunes and gravity water contained within the sand layer confirm the occurrence of preferential flow within the vadose zone of the megadunes. Alternating layers of coarse and fine sand create the conditions for the formation of preferential flows. The preferential flows promote movement of water within the sand layer water that leads to deep penetration of water within the megadunes and ultimately to the recharging of groundwater and lake water. Our results indicate that a positive water balance promotes recharge of the megadunes, which depends on the high permeability of the megadune material, the shallow depth of the surface sand layer affected by evaporation, the occurrence of rainfall events exceeding 15 mm, and the sparse vegetation cover. Water balance estimates indicate that the annual water storage of the megadunes is about 7.5 mm, accounting for only 8% of annual precipitation; however, the shallow groundwater per unit area under the megadunes receives only 3.6% of annual precipitation, but it is still able to maintain a dynamic balance of the lake water. From a water budget perspective, the annual water storage in the megadunes is sufficient to serve as a recharge source for lake water, thereby enabling the long‐term persistence of the lakes. Overall, our findings demonstrate that precipitation is a significant component of the hydrological cycle in arid deserts.     

GRACE和地面重力测量监测到的中国大陆长期重力变化

自2002年以来,GRACE卫星探测计划可提供高精度的时变地球重力场,用以探测地球系统的物质分布.自1998年中国大陆重力监测网建立以来,利用FG5绝对重力仪和LCR-G型相对重力仪每2年对该网进行重复测量获取重力场时变信息.基于此,本文利用GRACE和地面重力测量获得了中国大陆重力场的长期年变率,利用位错理论根据USGS发布的断层模型计算了2008年汶川M_s8.0级地震的同震重力变化并进行了300 km高斯滤波.GRACE卫星重力和地面重力结果均表明华北地区地下水流失严重,在绝对重力基准站上,GRACE卫星重力与绝对重力变化率较为一致,汶川区域的地面重力变化结果可视为大地震前兆信息.     

Variabilités interannuelle et intra-saisonnière des pluies aux échelles hydrologiques. La mousson ouest-africaine en climat soudanien / Seasonal cycle and interannual variability of rainfall at hydrological scales. The West African monsoon in a Sudanese climate

Abstract

West African rainfall is characterized by a strong variability, both at decadal and interannual scales. In order to quantify the hydrological impacts of such a variability, analysis of rainfall patterns at fine scales is highly essential. This diagnostic study aims to characterize the Sudanese rainfall regime at hydrological scales, using a raingauge data set collected on the upper Oueme River catchment (Benin) between 1950 and 2002. A long-term drought is observed during the 1970s and 1980s, as in the Sahel. However, the interannual variability remains significant in the Sudanese region. The study of the seasonal cycle, based on the distinction between the oceanic and continental monsoon regimes, shows that the majority of rainfall changes occur in the continental regime. On the one hand, the rainfall peak associated with this regime that has been observed for the last 50 years has occurred increasingly earlier in the season. On the other hand, the annual rainfall deficit is mainly linked to the decrease in the number of large events during the continental part of the season.     

Long-term and seasonal gravity changes at the Strasbourg station and their relation to crustal deformation and hydrology

The time-varying gravity is observed at the Strasbourg station with super-conducting gravimeters (SG) since 1987, with a first record from 1987 to 1996 (GWR T005) and a second one in continuity from 1996 till now (GWR C026). The long-term behaviour of the SG is constrained by regular absolute gravity (AG) measurements, which are performed in parallel since 1989, first with the JILAg-5 instrument and later on with the FG5#206. Moreover, a permanent GPS station, which belongs to the French geodetic network, has been installed at the end of 1999. We will show that the AG measurements suggest that the gravity is slowly increasing in time at a rate of about 1.6 μGal/year, and besides, exhibits a quasi-annual component of several μGal variable amplitude. We present an analysis of the GPS data obtained at the SG station in the Rhine graben as well as at another regional station in the Vosges mountains distant by about 40 km in order to constrain the gravity contribution due to the vertical displacement of the station in the earth's gravity field (geometrical part). The tectonic context of the region is described and our first results from our two data sets of limited duration suggest a small subsidence of our station in the graben; however, this fact needs further confirmation when more geodetic data will be available. We also analyze the water table changes beneath the station (local scale) and in the Alsatian Plain (regional scale) to estimate the hydrological contributions from ground water to the gravity residual signal, and we show that some similarities exist between the gravity residuals and the hydrological contributions, especially for the seasonal terms. Other missing contributions of annual period (air mass motion in the atmosphere, ocean circulation, continental hydrology) have to be considered.     

Tackling mass redistribution phenomena by time-dependent GRACE- and terrestrial gravity observations

Time variable gravity field models derived from the satellite mission GRACE have been demonstrated to be consistent with water mass variations in the global hydrological cycle. Independent observations are provided by terrestrial measurements. In order to achieve a maximum of reliability and information gain, ground-based gravity observations may be deployed for comparison with the gravity field variations derived from the GRACE satellite mission. In this context, the data of the network of superconducting gravimeters (SG) of the ‘Global Geodynamics Project’ (GGP) are of particular interest. This study is focused on the dense SG network in Central Europe with its long-term gravity observations. It is shown that after the separation and reduction of local hydrological effects in the SG observations especially for subsurface stations, the time-variable gravity signals from GRACE agree well with the terrestrial observations from the SG station cluster.Station stability of the SG sites with respect to vertical deformations was checked by GNSS based observations. Most of the variability can be explained by loading effects due to changes in continental water storage, and, in general, the stability of all stations has been confirmed.From comparisons based on correlation and coherence analyses in combination with the root mean square (RMS) variability of the time series emerges, that the maximum correspondence between the SG and GRACE time series is achieved when filtering the GRACE data with Gaussian filters of about 1000 km filter length, which is in accordance with previous publications.Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOF) analysis was applied to the gravity time series in order to identify common characteristic spatial and temporal patterns. The high correspondence of the first modes for GRACE and SG data implies that the first EOF mode represents a large-scale (Central European) time-variable gravity signal seen by both the GRACE satellites and the SG cluster.