Dataset Information

Assessing modern river sediment discharge to the ocean using satellite gravimetry.

ABSTRACT: Recent acceleration of sand extraction for anthropic use threatens the sustainability of this major resource. However, continental erosion and river transport, which produce sand and sediment in general, lack quantification at the global scale. Here, we develop a new geodetic method to infer the sediment discharge to ocean of the world's largest rivers. It combines the spatial distribution of modern sedimentation zones with new high-resolution (~170?km) data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission launched in 2002. We obtain sediment discharges consistent with in situ measurements for the Amazon, Ganges-Brahmaputra, Changjiang, Indus, and Magdalena rivers. This new approach enables to quantitatively monitor the contemporary erosion of continental basins drained by rivers with large sediment discharges and paves the way toward a better understanding of how natural and anthropic changes influence landscape dynamics.

SUBMITTER: Mouyen M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6107634 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Assessing modern river sediment discharge to the ocean using satellite gravimetry.

Mouyen Maxime M Longuevergne Laurent L Steer Philippe P Crave Alain A Lemoine Jean-Michel JM Save Himanshu H Robin Cécile C

Nature communications 20180823 1

Recent acceleration of sand extraction for anthropic use threatens the sustainability of this major resource. However, continental erosion and river transport, which produce sand and sediment in general, lack quantification at the global scale. Here, we develop a new geodetic method to infer the sediment discharge to ocean of the world's largest rivers. It combines the spatial distribution of modern sedimentation zones with new high-resolution (~170 km) data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate ...[more]

PMID: 30139937

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Project description:Since Kepler, Newton and Huygens in the seventeenth century, geodesy has been concerned with determining the figure, orientation and gravitational field of the Earth. With the beginning of the space age in 1957, a new branch of geodesy was created, satellite geodesy. Only with satellites did geodesy become truly global. Oceans were no longer obstacles and the Earth as a whole could be observed and measured in consistent series of measurements. Of particular interest is the determination of the spatial structures and finally the temporal changes of the Earth's gravitational field. The knowledge of the gravitational field represents the natural bridge to the study of the physics of the Earth's interior, the circulation of our oceans and, more recently, the climate. Today, key findings on climate change are derived from the temporal changes in the gravitational field: on ice mass loss in Greenland and Antarctica, sea level rise and generally on changes in the global water cycle. This has only become possible with dedicated gravity satellite missions opening a method known as satellite gravimetry. In the first forty years of space age, satellite gravimetry was based on the analysis of the orbital motion of satellites. Due to the uneven distribution of observatories over the globe, the initially inaccurate measuring methods and the inadequacies of the evaluation models, the reconstruction of global models of the Earth's gravitational field was a great challenge. The transition from passive satellites for gravity field determination to satellites equipped with special sensor technology, which was initiated in the last decade of the twentieth century, brought decisive progress. In the chronological sequence of the launch of such new satellites, the history, mission objectives and measuring principles of the missions CHAMP, GRACE and GOCE flown since 2000 are outlined and essential scientific results of the individual missions are highlighted. The special features of the GRACE Follow-On Mission, which was launched in 2018, and the plans for a next generation of gravity field missions are also discussed.

Dataset Information

Assessing modern river sediment discharge to the ocean using satellite gravimetry.

Publications

Assessing modern river sediment discharge to the ocean using satellite gravimetry.

Similar Datasets

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