Eurasia terrestrial water storage changes and boreal drought from multi-sensor satellite observations, in-situ data

High latitude biomes are changing in response to recent and persistent climatic warming. Dramatic changes have been observed in the Arctic terrestrial hydrologic cycle over the last century with the rate of change increasing during recent decades. Surface air temperatures have increased more over northern land areas than elsewhere in the world with most general circulation models projecting amplified Arctic warming through the 21st century [IPCC, 2001]. Northern terrestrial ecosystems are critical to global climate because they are a major sink for atmospheric CO2 and contain up to 40% of the global reservoir of potentially reactive organic carbon soil. This work has the goal of improving understanding of how Northern terrestrial ecosystems are responding to recent climate warming. Our study domain is the Eurasian land mass encompassing the major river basins in the region (Lena, Ob and Yenisey). We study correlations of terrestrial water storage estimates from the GRACE satellite with precipitation and river discharge measurements, length of thaw/freeze season from satellite microwave remote sensing, MODIS derived net primary production (NPP) and permafrost extent. Results of these comparisons and interpretation will be presented.