Water-Level Responses to Barometric-Pressure Fluctuations in Wells in Semi-Confined Aquifers

Hydrologists have long recognized that changes in barometric pressure can produce changes in water levels in wells. The relationship between barometric pressure and water level has traditionally been characterized using the barometric efficiency (BE), the ratio of the change in water level to the change in barometric pressure head. Although BE has proven to be an effective means of characterizing the short-term response of a well to a change in barometric pressure, the barometric response function (BRF) is a more effective means to characterize the longer-term response. The BRF, which can be determined through a regression deconvolution procedure developed by Rasmussen and co-workers (Rasmussen and Crawford, 1997; Toll and Rasmussen, 2007), characterizes the water level response over time to a step change in barometric pressure, essentially BE as a function of the time since the imposed load. We have extended earlier work of Rasmussen and Spane (Rasmussen and Crawford, 1997; Spane, 2002) to show that the BRF can be utilized to glean important insights into semi-confined aquifer systems. The form of the BRF indicates the degree of aquifer confinement, while a comparison of BRFs from different wells provides insight into aquitard continuity. Recently, we have developed a new approach for estimating aquitard K by fitting type curves to experimentally determined BRFs. We will demonstrate the power of the BRF using field data from a long-term monitoring site of the Kansas Geological Survey at which a four-day pumping test has previously been performed. The aquitard K estimates obtained from the BRFs are in good agreement at this site with the estimate determined from the pumping test. We will also show how the BRF for a well in a semi-confined aquifer can be used to gain insights into conditions in the overlying unconfined aquifer and vadose zone. Although the BE is considered an invariant parameter of a well, we will show that the BRF of a well in a semi-confined aquifer can change as a function of vadose-zone conditions. The BRF is a promising tool for gaining important insights into site hydrostratigraphy through passive monitoring of water levels and barometric pressure, and can often be a cost-effective supplement to a conventional pumping test for assessing aquitard properties.