Assessment of Temporal Variations of Orthometric/Normal Heights Induced by Hydrological Mass Variations over Large River Basins Using GRACE Mission Data

Abstract

Almost half of the Earth’s land is covered by large river basins. Temporal variations of hydrological masses induce time-varying gravitational potential and temporal mass loading that deforms the Earth’s surface. These phenomena cause temporal variations of geoid/quasigeoid and ellipsoidal heights that result in temporal variations of orthometric/normal heights ΔH/ΔH*. The aim of this research is to assess ΔH/ΔH* induced by hydrological masses over large river basins using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission data. The results obtained reveal that for the river basin of a strong hydrological signal, ΔH/ΔH* reach 8 cm. These ΔH/ΔH* would be needed to reliably determine accurate orthometric/normal heights. The ΔH/ΔH* do not exceed ±1 cm in the case of the river basin of the weak hydrological signal. The relation between hydrological mass changes and ΔH/ΔH* was investigated. Correlations between ΔH/ΔH* and temporal variations of equivalent water thickness were observed in 87% of river basins subareas out of which 45% exhibit strong correlations. The ΔH/ΔH* determined over two river basins that characterize with the strongest and weakest temporal variations were analysed using the Principal Component Analysis method. The results obtained reveal that ΔH/ΔH* in subareas of the same river basin can significantly differ (e.g., ±2 cm in the Amazon basin) from each other, and are strongly associated with different spatio-temporal patterns of the entire river basin.