A third of the world's biggest groundwater basins are in distress
University Of California
The findings appear today in Water Resources Research. The studies are the first to characterize groundwater losses via data from space, using readings generated by NASA’s twin GRACE satellites that measure dips and bumps in Earth’s gravity, which is affected by the weight of water. asked the lead author on both studies, Alexandra Richey, who conducted the research as a UCI doctoral student. As we’re seeing in California right now, we rely much more heavily on groundwater during drought, Famiglietti said. DOI: 10.1002/2015WR017349 Uncertainty in global groundwater storage estimates in a total groundwater stress framework.