Monitoring Droughts From GRACE

Abstract

With ongoing climate change, we are staring at possibly longer and more severe droughts in the future. Therefore, monitoring and understanding duration and intensity of droughts, and how are they evolving in space and time is imperative for global socio-economic security. Satellite remote sensing has helped us a lot in this endeavor, but most of the satellite missions observe only near-surface properties of the Earth. A recent geodetic satellite mission, GRACE, measured the water storage change both on and beneath the surface, which makes it unique and valuable for drought research. This novel dataset comes with unique problems and characteristics that we should acknowledge before using it. In this perspective article, I elucidate important characteristics of various available GRACE products that are important for drought research. I also discuss limitations of GRACE mission that one should be aware of, and finally I shed some light on latest developments in GRACE data processing that may open numerous possibilities in near future.