Earth  ID: 13824

NASA Satellite Measures the Human Impact in Water Storage

To investigate humans’ impact on freshwater resources, scientists have now conducted the first global accounting of fluctuating water levels in Earth’s lakes and reservoirs – including ones previously too small to measure from space. Scientists used these height measurements to study 227,386 water bodies over 22 months and discovered that, from season to season, the water level in Earth’s lakes and ponds fluctuate on average by about 8.6 inches (0.22 m). At the same time, the water level of human-managed reservoirs fluctuate on average by nearly quadruple that amount – about 34 inches (0.86 m).
 

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For More Information

https://nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/nasa-satellite-data-shows-much-higher-human-impact-on-global-surface-water-storage


Credits

Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Producer
Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Editor
Trent L. Schindler (USRA): Lead Visualizer
Sarah Cooley (Stanford University): Lead Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13824

Mission:
Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2)

This item is part of this series:
Narrated Movies

Keywords:
DLESE >> Hydrology
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Hydrosphere >> Surface Water
SVS >> Water Levels
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0