Earth Sciences

Unprecedented continental drying, shrinking freshwater availability, and increasing land contributions to sea level rise

H. A. Chandanpurkar, J. S. Famiglietti, et al.

NASA GRACE/GRACE-FO satellite data reveal unprecedented continental terrestrial water storage loss since 2002: expanding mega-drying regions, dry areas drying faster than wet areas are wetting, and groundwater depletion accounting for 68% of non-glaciated TWS loss. Resulting impacts touch 75% of the global population in 101 countries and make continents a larger freshwater contributor to sea level rise than ice sheets—urgent action is required. Research conducted by Authors present in <Authors> tag.