Global Aquifer Groundwater Storage from GRACE Satellites and GLDAS Models, 2002-2016

Monthly anomalies for the world's large aquifer systems from August 2002 to July 2016. The data includes total terrestrial water storage, soil moisture, surface water, snow water, and groundwater storage, derived from an ensemble of three GRACE satellite products and four NASA GLDAS land surface models, with aggregated precipitation data from the Climatic Research Unit. This dataset was produced by the British Geological Survey under a NERC grant.

Use Cases

• Modeling long-term groundwater depletion trends based on GRACE-derived groundwater storage anomalies.
• Analyzing correlations between precipitation and terrestrial water storage components for large aquifer systems.
• Validating land surface model outputs against satellite-observed water storage data.
• Assessing seasonal and interannual variability in snow water and soil moisture storage.

Strengths

• Data spans 14 years of monthly observations from August 2002 to July 2016.
• Integrates multiple data sources: an ensemble of three GRACE products and four GLDAS models.
• Focuses on the world's large aquifer systems, a key scale for groundwater resource assessment.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to the specific 2002-2016 observation period.

Provenance

Source

British Geological Survey (BGS)

Collection Method

Derived from ensemble means of GRACE satellite products and NASA GLDAS land surface models, with aggregated CRU precipitation data.

Time Range

August 2002 to July 2016

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-09 08:39:59.091282; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage for the world's large aquifer systems