Analysis of water mass variations in wetlands regions using data from GRACE satellite mission: the Pantanal case

CECILIA CORNERO; AYELEN PEREIRA; ANA CRISTINA OLIVEIRA CANCORO DE MATOS; MARÍA CRISTINA PACINO

REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE GEOFíSICA

Sociedade Brasileira de Geofísica

Año: 2017

0102-261X

The natural heritage of forests and biodiversity of the Paraguay river basin is subject to potential impacts due to climate change. Variations in temperature and precipitation can significantly affect the water cycles, jeopardizing the stability of ecosystems and the spatial-temporal availability of water resources. The Pantanal is part of the Upper Paraguay river basin and is one of the most immense and biologically rich environments of the planet.To monitor these environments at large spatial scales, the satellite gravity mission GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) provides time-variable gravity field models that reflect the Earth?s gravity field variations due to mass transport processes like continental water storage variations. The purpose of this work is to analyze the spatial and temporal water storage changes for period 2003-2014 using the Equivalent Water Height (EWH) grids derived from the GRACE solutions in the Pantanal region.EWH time series for the period 2003-2014 were made. Also, the comparison with hydrometric height data and EWH values at different meteorological stations distributed over the Pantanal region was carried out. In order to validate the satellite results, the correlation between the water mass changes and river gauge measurements was obtained. The amplitude and phase for the annual and semiannual cycles were also computed, and the phase differences were analyzed. According to the results, high correlations were detected at the north, and lower ones towards the south of the Pantanal. The resulting phase shifts could also be gathered in the same regions.EWH results were also contrasted with soil moisture and rainfall data models. A good agreement between the signals was obtained for the area under study.Finally, this work attempts to establish a methodology to evaluate the water mass variations in the Pantanal area and its hydrodynamic behavior, in order to contribute to the study of the water resources of the region.