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Journal Article

Validation of terrestrial water storage variations as simulated by different global numerical models with GRACE satellite observations

Authors
/persons/resource/jzhang

Zhang,  L.
1.3 Earth System Modelling, 1.0 Geodesy, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

/persons/resource/dobslaw

Dobslaw,  H.
1.3 Earth System Modelling, 1.0 Geodesy, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

Stacke,  Tobias
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/guentner

Güntner,  A.
5.4 Hydrology, 5.0 Geoarchives, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

/persons/resource/dill

Dill,  R.
1.3 Earth System Modelling, 1.0 Geodesy, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

/persons/resource/mthomas

Thomas,  M.
1.3 Earth System Modelling, 1.0 Geodesy, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

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2041894.pdf
(Publisher version), 5MB

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Citation

Zhang, L., Dobslaw, H., Stacke, T., Güntner, A., Dill, R., Thomas, M. (2017): Validation of terrestrial water storage variations as simulated by different global numerical models with GRACE satellite observations. - Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 21, 2, 821-837.
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-821-2017


Cite as: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_2041894
Abstract
Estimates of terrestrial water storage (TWS) variations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission are used to assess the accuracy of four global numerical model realizations that simulate the continental branch of the global water cycle. Based on four different validation metrics, we demonstrate that for the 31 largest discharge basins worldwide all model runs agree with the observations to a very limited degree only, together with large spreads among the models themselves. Since we apply a common atmospheric forcing data set to all hydrological models considered, we conclude that those discrepancies are not entirely related to uncertainties in meteorologic input, but instead to the model structure and parametrization, and in particular to the representation of individual storage components with different spatial characteristics in each of the models. TWS as monitored by the GRACE mission is therefore a valuable validation data set for global numerical simulations of the terrestrial water storage since it is sensitive to very different model physics in individual basins, which offers helpful insight to modellers for the future improvement of large-scale numerical models of the global terrestrial water cycle.