The Global Gravity-based Groundwater Product (G3P)
12 affiliations
- 1GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (Potsdam, Germany)
- 2University of Potsdam (Potsdam, Germany)
- 3GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, 14473, Germany
- 4Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research-Troposphere Research (IMK-TRO), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, 76131, Germany
- 5International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre IGRAC, Delft, 2611 AX, the Netherlands
- 6Astronomical Institute, University Bern, Bern, 3012, Switzerland
- 7Geoscience Australia, Canberra, 2601, Australia
- 8Center for Earth and Space, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Santiago, 7941169, Chile
- 9Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, 8057, Switzerland
- 10Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation, TU Wien, Vienna, 1040, Austria
- 11Finnish Meteorological Institute, FMI, Arctic Space Center, Helsinki, 00560, Finland
- 12International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre IGRAC , Delft , 2611 AX , the Netherlands
Abstract
Groundwater is one of the most important freshwater resources for ecosystems and mankind. Because of its fundamental role in the Earth's water and energy cycles, groundwater has been declared an essential climate variable by GCOS, the Global Climate Observing System. Similar to other subsurface states and fluxes, groundwater is difficult to monitor at the global scale, with sufficient spatial coverage and over climate-relevant time scales. The Global Gravity-based Groundwater Product (G3P) is a global observation-based data set of large-scale groundwater storage variations. G3P capitalizes on the unique capability of GRACE and GRACE-FO satellite gravimetry as the only remote sensing technology to monitor subsurface mass variations. In a mass balance approach, satellite-based, in situ observation-based and model-based water storage variations of snow water equivalent, root-zone soil moisture, glacier mass, and surface water storage are subtracted from GRACE/-FO terrestrial water storage anomalies to result in monthly variations of groundwater storage. For this combination, the individual compartmental storage data are spatially filtered to be consistent with the spatial resolution of terrestrial water storage from satellite gravimetry. The G3P data set presented here covers the period 2002 to 2023 with monthly resolution on a 0.5° global grid and includes propagated uncertainty information. We describe the details of the G3P data processing chain and of each contributing data stream, provide examples of spatial and temporal groundwater storage variations represented by the G3P data set, and present exemplary evaluation results against in situ groundwater observations for three large aquifer systems. G3P is a prototype for an operational global groundwater service, under development as a cross-cutting extension of the existing portfolio of the Copernicus Climate Change Service C3S. The G3P data set is available via GFZ Data Services at https://doi.org/10.5880/G3P.2024.001 (Güntner et al., 2024).
Related
- Continental water storage trends and budgets from the GRACE/GRACE-FO Global Gravity-based Groundwater Product (G3P)
- The GRACE satellite mission and transformation of global groundwater science
- Global projections of groundwater sustainability through the end of the century
- GROW-Qual: A global observational groundwater quality dataset linked to water table dynamics and Earth system variables
- Groundwater-dependent ecosystems are missing from global research and policy agendas
BibTeX
@article{guntner2026global,
title = {{The Global Gravity-based Groundwater Product (G3P)}},
author = {Andreas Güntner and Ehsan Sharifi and Julian Haas and Eva Boergens and Feifei Cao and Christoph Dahle and Neda Darbeheshti and Henryk Dobslaw and Inés Dussaillant and Wouter Arnoud Dorigo and Frank Flechtner and Adrian Jäggi and Miriam Kosmale and Martin Lasser and Kari Luojus and Ulrich Meyer and Adam Pasik and Wolfgang Preimersberger and Claudia Ruz Vargas and Michael Zemp},
journal = {Earth system science data},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.5194/essd-18-7787-2026},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-7787-2026},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - The Global Gravity-based Groundwater Product (G3P)
AU - Andreas Güntner
AU - Ehsan Sharifi
AU - Julian Haas
AU - Eva Boergens
AU - Feifei Cao
AU - Christoph Dahle
AU - Neda Darbeheshti
AU - Henryk Dobslaw
AU - Inés Dussaillant
AU - Wouter Arnoud Dorigo
AU - Frank Flechtner
AU - Adrian Jäggi
AU - Miriam Kosmale
AU - Martin Lasser
AU - Kari Luojus
AU - Ulrich Meyer
AU - Adam Pasik
AU - Wolfgang Preimersberger
AU - Claudia Ruz Vargas
AU - Michael Zemp
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
JO - Earth system science data
DO - 10.5194/essd-18-7787-2026
UR - https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-7787-2026
AB - Groundwater is one of the most important freshwater resources for ecosystems and mankind. Because of its fundamental role in the Earth's water and energy cycles, groundwater has been declared an essential climate variable by GCOS, the Global Climate Observing System. Similar to other subsurface states and fluxes, groundwater is difficult to monitor at the global scale, with sufficient spatial coverage and over climate-relevant time scales. The Global Gravity-based Groundwater Product (G3P) is a global observation-based data set of large-scale groundwater storage variations. G3P capitalizes on the unique capability of GRACE and GRACE-FO satellite gravimetry as the only remote sensing technology to monitor subsurface mass variations. In a mass balance approach, satellite-based, in situ observation-based and model-based water storage variations of snow water equivalent, root-zone soil moisture, glacier mass, and surface water storage are subtracted from GRACE/-FO terrestrial water storage anomalies to result in monthly variations of groundwater storage. For this combination, the individual compartmental storage data are spatially filtered to be consistent with the spatial resolution of terrestrial water storage from satellite gravimetry. The G3P data set presented here covers the period 2002 to 2023 with monthly resolution on a 0.5° global grid and includes propagated uncertainty information. We describe the details of the G3P data processing chain and of each contributing data stream, provide examples of spatial and temporal groundwater storage variations represented by the G3P data set, and present exemplary evaluation results against in situ groundwater observations for three large aquifer systems. G3P is a prototype for an operational global groundwater service, under development as a cross-cutting extension of the existing portfolio of the Copernicus Climate Change Service C3S. The G3P data set is available via GFZ Data Services at https://doi.org/10.5880/G3P.2024.001 (Güntner et al., 2024).
SN - 1866-3508
SN - 1866-3516
ER -