Monitoring groundwater dynamics across scales through satellite soil moisture: preliminary results from a novel PhD project

Groundwater is the primary source of accessible freshwater globally, playing a vital role in food security, water supply, and industrial activities. However, excessive abstractions exacerbated by climate change and population growth scenarios threaten long-term availability of groundwater resources. In this context, Earth Observation technologies offer innovative monitoring solutions. Relying on the preliminary findings by Dari et al. (2025) through the SM-Inversion algorithm, this PhD project aims to expand the framework of monitoring groundwater dynamics through remotely sensed soil moisture. The assessment of the extent at which data resolution can be an issue, the upscaling across scale (regional, country, global), and the exploration of synergies with gravimetry missions are among the long-term objectives of the project. In fact, SM-Inversion method enables the estimation of aquifer recharge rates by integrating satellite soil moisture data at various spatial resolutions, in order to evaluate the accuracy of estimates across scales. Preliminary results obtained over eleven aquifers located in the Murray-Darling Basin (Australia) are presented here. Five remote sensing soil moisture products are evaluated: ASCAT (Advanced SCATterometer), CCI (Climate Change Initiative) Combined, CCI Passive, SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive), and SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity). Potential evaporation rates from GLEAM (Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model) and precipitation from ERA5 (European ReAnalysis-v5) are also used in the proposed aquifer-scale analysis.

 

References:

Dari, J., Filippucci, P., Brocca, L., Quast, R., Vreugdenhil, M., Miralles, D., Morbidelli, R., Saltalippi, C., and Flammini, A.: A novel approach for estimating groundwater recharge leveraging high-resolution satellite soil moisture, Journal of Hydrology, 652, 132678, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2025.132678, 2025.