Basin-Scale Water-Balance dataset (BSWB dataset)
Monthly variations in terrestrial water storage for major river basins
Available river basins (without sub-basins).
Click on the map to access data download.
Data
Description
This
diagnostic data set (BSWB) contains time series of monthly
variations in terrestrial water storage for 37 major
mid-latitude river basins. The data was derived by means of
combined atmospheric and terrestrial water-balances using
atmospheric water vapor flux convergence and change in
atmospheric water vapor content from the ECMWF
ERA-40 and ERA-interim reanalysis or the ECMWF
operational analysis (ECMWFop), as well as
conventional river runoff (from the Global
Runoff Data Centre, the U.S.
Geological Survey or local sources). A study
for the Mississippi basin (Seneviratne et al. 2004) has
demonstrated the validity of this approach, and found that
it agreed well with in-situ observations of soil moisture,
groundwater and snow in Illinois.
For
more detailed information on the data, see Mueller et al.
2011, Hirschi et al. 2006a and Seneviratne et al. 2004. The
ECMWFop derived BSWB data is described in Hirschi et al.
2006b
BSWB
data for the various river basins is freely available for download.
References
Mueller,
B., M. Hirschi and S. I. Seneviratne (2011). New
diagnostic estimates of variations in terrestrial
water storage based on ERA-Interim data.
Hydrological Processes,
25, 996–1008.
[pdf]
Hirschi,
M., S. I. Seneviratne and C. Schär (2006a). Seasonal
variations in terrestrial water storage for major
midlatitude river basins. Journal of Hydrometeorology,
7, 39–60. [pdf]
Hirschi, M., P. Viterbo and S. I. Seneviratne (2006b). Basin-scale
water-balance estimates of terrestrial water storage
variations from ECMWF operational forecast analysis. Geophysical
Research Letters, 33,
doi:10.1029/2006GL027659.[pdf]
Seneviratne, S. I., P. Viterbo, D. Lüthi and C. Schär
(2004). Inferring
changes in terrestrial water storage using ERA-40
reanalysis data: The Mississippi river basin. Journal
of Climate, 17, 2039-2057. [pdf]
Acknowledgments
The following institutions are gratefully acknowledged for
providing data: European Centre for Medium-Range Weather
Forecasts (ECMWF, Reading, UK), Global Runoff Data Centre
(GRCD, 56068 Koblenz, Germany), and U.S. Geological Survey.