Abrupt sea level rise and Earth’s gradual pole shift reveal permanent hydrological regime changes in the 21st century.
As climate has warmed, precipitation and evapotranspiration changes have affected land surface water fluxes. What impact has that had on terrestrial water storage, the amount of water stored on and in the land? Seo et al. combined soil moisture data from satellites, measurements of sea level, and observations of polar motion to estimate terrestrial water storage over the past four decades, which revealed a dramatic decline (see the Perspective by Samaniego). During the interval from 2000 to 2002, terrestrial water storage decreased by nearly twice as much as Greenland ice mass loss over the same period.
