EGU21-9270
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9270
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Tracking the storage and dissipation of atmospheric river storm water in the Russian River watershed using GPS elastic displacements

Ellen Knappe1, Adrian Borsa1, Hilary Martens3, Donald Argus2, Zachary Hoylman3, W. Payton Gardner3, Anna Wilson4, and Marty Ralph4
Ellen Knappe et al.
  • 1(eknappe@ucsd.edu) Scripps Institute of Oceanography, UCSD, San Diego, CA ,USA
  • 2JPL, Pasadena, CA, USA
  • 3University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA
  • 4Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, SIO, UCSD, San Diego, CA, USA

GPS is emerging as an effective technique to estimate changes in total water storage at Earth's surface.  In California's mountains, GPS indicates that more subsurface storage is lost during drought and gained during years of heavy precipitation than predicted by hydrology models [Argus et al. 2017].  Atmospheric rivers provide a majority of the annual precipitation in coastal environments across North America. The Russian River watershed is often affected by these large storms, which can produce extensive flooding events. In this study, we estimate changes in water storage for the 2017 water year (October 2016 – September 2017), a historically wet year in California, in which more than 20 atmospheric rivers impacted the Russian River watershed. Using GPS displacements, we quantify the water gained during higher intensity atmospheric rivers. We further resolve the time it takes for the storm water to dissipate: that is, we distinguish between water that runs off into rivers and water that is stored in the ground as soil moisture. Finally, we investigate the empirical relationships between GPS displacement and precipitation, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture estimates with the aim of improving constraints to hydrologic models.

How to cite: Knappe, E., Borsa, A., Martens, H., Argus, D., Hoylman, Z., Gardner, W. P., Wilson, A., and Ralph, M.: Tracking the storage and dissipation of atmospheric river storm water in the Russian River watershed using GPS elastic displacements, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-9270, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9270, 2021.

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