Fig. 6: Groundwater storage variations in the three Central Valley sub-basins.
From: Groundwater depletion in California’s Central Valley accelerates during megadrought
GRACE/FO-derived groundwater anomalies during September 2003–December 2021 in the (a) Sacramento, (b) San Joaquin, and (c) Tulare basins. The green shaded margins are the uncertainty of groundwater storage estimates. Red arrows represent groundwater loss trends during the droughts of 2006–2011, 2011–2017, and since 2019. Blue arrows represent the three short recharge periods. The black line shows the overall groundwater depletion trend from 2003–2021. Comparison of deseasonalized anomalies of GRACE/FO derived groundwater and water table depth anomalies from monitoring wells for the (d) Sacramento, e San Joaquin, and (f) Tulare basins.
