{ "id": 5565, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5565/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Water Cycle Extremes 2002-2024: Droughts and Pluvials", "description": "In a study of 20 years of data from the NASA/German GRACE and GRACE-FO satellites, NASA scientists confirmed that major droughts and pluvials — periods of excessive precipitation and water storage on the landscape — have been occurring more often. They also found that the worldwide intensity of these extreme wet and dry events – a metric that combines extent, duration, and severity — is closely linked to global warming.", "release_date": "2025-06-26T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-06-27T09:45:04.887505-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 1156602, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a005500/a005565/water_extremes_map_2002-2024_HD.png", "filename": "water_extremes_map_2002-2024_HD.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 }, "main_video": { "id": 1156548, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a005500/a005565/water_extremes_morph_2002-2024_1080p30.mp4", "filename": "water_extremes_morph_2002-2024_1080p30.mp4", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 }, "main_credits": { "Visualizations by": [ { "name": "Mark SubbaRao", "employer": "NASA/GSFC" } ], "Scientific consulting by": [ { "name": "Matthew Rodell", "employer": "NASA/GSFC" }, { "name": "Bailing Li", "employer": "University of Maryland College Park" } ] }, "progress": "Complete", "media_groups": [ { "id": 378416, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5565/#media_group_378416", "widget": "Basic text with HTML", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "In a study of 20 years of data from the NASA/German GRACE and GRACE-FO satellites, NASA scientists confirmed that major droughts and pluvials — periods of excessive precipitation and water storage on the landscape — have been occurring more often. They also found that the worldwide intensity of these extreme wet and dry events – a metric that combines extent, duration, and severity — is closely linked to global warming. Warmer air causes more moisture to evaporate from Earth's surface during dry events; warm air can also hold more moisture to fuel severe snow- and rainfall events. \r\n\r\nFloods and droughts account for more than 20% of the economic losses caused by extreme weather events in the U.S. each year, ranked second after hurricanes among major disasters. The economic impacts are similar around the world, though the human toll tends to be most devastating in poor and developing nations.\r\n\r\nThis research was funded by NASA’s GRACE-FO Science Team.", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 378428, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5565/#media_group_378428", "widget": "Video player", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "This visualization shows extremes of the water cycle — droughts and pluvials — over a 23-year period (2002-2025) based on observations from the GRACE and GRACE-FO satellites. Dry events are shown as red spheres and wet events as blue spheres, with earlier years being shown as lighter shades and later years as darker shades. The volume of the sphere is proportional to the intensity of the event, a quantity measured in cubic kilometer months. 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Dry events are shown as red spheres and wet events as blue spheres, with earlier years being shown as lighter shades and later years as darker shades. The volume of the sphere is proportional to the intensity of the event, a quantity measured in cubic kilometer months. This version only shows North America.", "items": [ { "id": 488723, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": "", "instance": { "id": 1156592, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a005500/a005565/WaterCycle_extremes_NA_2002-2024.mp4", "filename": "WaterCycle_extremes_NA_2002-2024.mp4", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } ], "extra_data": {} } ], "studio": "svs", "funding_sources": [ "ESE" ], "credits": [ { "role": "Visualizer", "people": [ { "name": "Mark SubbaRao", "employer": "NASA/GSFC" }, { "name": "Greg Shirah", "employer": "NASA/GSFC" } ] }, { "role": "Technical support", "people": [ { "name": "Laurence Schuler", "employer": "ADNET Systems, Inc." }, { "name": "Ian Jones", "employer": "ADNET Systems, Inc." } ] }, { "role": "Scientist", "people": [ { "name": "Matthew Rodell", "employer": "NASA/GSFC" }, { "name": "Bailing Li", "employer": "University of Maryland College Park" } ] }, { "role": "Writer", "people": [ { "name": "Kathryn Cawdrey", "employer": "ASRC Federal System Solutions" }, { "name": "Mike Carlowicz", "employer": "SSAI" } ] } ], "missions": [], "series": [], "tapes": [], "papers": [ "Rodell, M., and B. Li, 2023: Changing intensity of hydroclimatic extreme events revealed by GRACE and GRACE-FO, Nature Water, doi:10.1038/s44221-023-00040-5. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-023-00040-5 " ], "datasets": [], "nasa_science_categories": [ "Earth" ], "keywords": [ "Climate Indicators", "Drought Indices", "Earth Science", "floods", "Grace", "GRACE-FO", "Hydrology", "Hydrosphere", "Natural hazards", "surface water", "Water Cycle" ], "recommended_pages": [], "related": [], "sources": [], "products": [ { "id": 60003, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/60003/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "How NASA Data Stabilizes Global Markets", "description": "By delivering timely, science-based insights from space, NASA supports smarter farming decisions and helps keep food prices more stable for consumers around the world.", "release_date": "2025-09-15T16:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-09-15T16:21:36.722914-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 1158269, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a060000/a060000/a060003/EIC_AgAndMarkets_preview.png", "filename": "EIC_AgAndMarkets_preview.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "", "width": 1080, "height": 634, "pixels": 684720 } } ], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }