Reanalysis of global land water storage in the pre-GRACE era from assimilating SLR and DORIS data into a hydrological model

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Kusche
• Subject Area: Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics, Cartography
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 551383160

This project aims at providing a gridded (0.5°), global, multi-decadal (at least 1990 - today) data set of terrestrial total water storage anomalies, and its main contributors groundwater, surface waters and soil water storage anomalies. To this end, we will - for the first time - assimilate time-variable gravity solutions from geodetic satellite laser ranging, DORIS tracking, and from the GRACE and GRACE-FO missions into a global hydrology model (WaterGAP). To enhance the spatial resolution of the SLR and DORIS data before assimilation, we will apply, evaluate, and further develop the EOF fitting method in the tracking analysis. Our three-decades data set (Global Land Water Storage version 3 - GLWS3) will be validated and used for scientific assessment in hydrological and geodetic ap-plications; this will enable us to address questions regarding the temporal consistency of GRACE/-FO derived trends.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants