Analysis of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Satellite-Derived Data as a Groundwater and Drought Monitoring Tool

This research compares Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) groundwater storage (GWS) and root zone soil moisture (RZSM) percentiles to measured data, other drought indicators (DIs) and indices, and stakeholder observations for the purpose of assessing the feasibility and usefulness of these products to detect drought conditions. GRACE percentiles were directly compared to historic groundwater percentiles at 89 Nebraska well locations. Spatial time-series correlations over CONUS were performed between GRACE GWS and RZSM and the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), and soil moisture parameters from several North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) models. A survey of stakeholder observations during a 2016 flash drought event centered on Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska was also compared to GRACE percentile data to analyze drought onset timing, geographic coverage, and severity. Overall the results show GRACE GWS has similar spatial and temporal agreement over the well period of record, and generally has the expected negative correlation relationship with observed groundwater, but it does not accurately reflect historic percentiles in Nebraska. GRACE GWS and RZSM have moderate correlation with USDM, and high correlation with SPI, and NLDAS models over the entire U.S. with notable regional and seasonal patterns. SPI accumulation period also plays an important role in correlation strength for both RZSM and GWS with the best agreement seen at 3-month and 12-month accumulation periods, respectively. GRACE RZSM time-series data closely matches stakeholder observations of decreasing soil moisture availability, while observations of decreasing water levels were not as closely matched by GWS. When analyzed as an average over all responding zip codes, RZSM showed an early warning trend up to six weeks prior to observed reports. These results indicate GRACE percentiles are promising drought indicators that can be used as a monitoring and early warning system by decision makers. Advisor: Tsegaye Tadess