Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Special Seminar: Khosro Ghobadi: Quantifying the impact of climate extremes on water resources using an integrated space geodesy and remote sensing approach

Thursday March 9 2023 @ 3:00 pm

March

9

Thu

2023

3:00 pm

Event Type
Seminar
Availability

Open to Public

Audience
  • CIRES employees
  • CU Boulder employees
  • NOAA employees
  • Science collaborators
  • Host
    CIRES

    A thorough quantification and understanding of the compounding impacts of extreme climate events and humans on water resources is essential for sustainable management of freshwater resources. This requires a monitoring system capable of “observing” the surface (e.g., lakes) as well as subsurface (e.g., groundwater) water resources at various temporal and spatial scales. Integrating various space geodesy and remote sensing techniques (e.g., GRACE/GRACE Follow-On, GNSS, InSAR and SWOT) with physics-based models and data-driven approaches offers a unique opportunity to establish an adaptable decision-support system for water resources management with wide-ranging capabilities and benefits. In this seminar, I will discuss three novel applications of remote sensing techniques yielding methodological advancements for the quantification of water resources dynamics during extreme climate events: (1) Inferring dynamics of the exceptional 2020 monsoon flooding in Bangladesh from along-orbit gravitational laser ranging measurements by the GRACE Follow-On satellites, (2) Quantifying the impact of drought and evaluating the success of managed aquifer recharge on groundwater dynamics in the Santa Clara Valley aquifer-system using InSAR observations and poroelasticity theory, and (3) Multiscale estimation of terrestrial water storage loss in California over the most recent drought (2019-) using an integrated analysis of GRACE Follow-On time-variable gravity, GNSS measurements of drought-induced elastic uplift of Earth’s crust, and InSAR poroelastic deformation measurements of fast land subsidence over Central Valley caused by groundwater depletion.
    These case studies highlight the importance of Earth-observing data for developing management, adaptation, and resilience plans promoting environmental justice and security in the era of climate change.
    *light refreshments will follow