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GRACE offers broad snapshot of groundwater

Posted by: Maven on December 18, 2009 at 7:57 am

From the Chico Enterprise-Record:

“New satellite data showcased at the American Geophysical Union meeting this week in San Francisco illustrated the degree to which groundwater has dropped over the past several years in California’s Central Valley.

GRACE, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, through a partnership with NASA and the German Aerospace Center, tracks the monthly changes in the earth’s gravity field caused by the movement of water.

The focus of the presentation was groundwater, and the rate at which groundwater levels have changed from October 2003 through March 2009 in the Central Valley.

The trend for the Central Valley overall is unsustainable, the presentation concluded, with areas in the San Joaquin Valley dropping 2-6 feet a year. In the Northern Sacramento Valley, these numbers range from .5 to 1.3 feet a year over that time period.

Lester Messina, who works in water issues for the Glenn County Department of Agriculture, said the NASA work is “a good wake-up.” … “

Read more from the Chico Enterprise-Record by clicking here.

December 18, 2009 · Filed Under Groundwater

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