The amount of fresh water on our planet has decreased significantly over the past decade, NASA satellites, which has made the continents drier.
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An international team of scientists examined observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) operated by NASA, the German Aerospace Center , and the German Geosciences Research Center. The data collected by GRACE revealed that since May 2014, there has been a large drop in the Earth's freshwater supply, and the planet has yet to recover. The researchers suggest that this evidence could also mean that the Earth is going through a drier phase than normal.
The GRACE satellites take monthly measurements of changes in Earth's gravity, which allows scientists to see if there is also a change in the concentration of water on the surface and underground. In NASA's GRACE satellite measurements, taken between 2015 and 2023, the total amount of freshwater worldwide reached 1,200 cubic kilometers, which shows that the continents are getting drier.
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According to data from the GRACE satellite, 13 of the 30 most severe droughts worldwide have occurred since January 2015. According to their research, northern and central Brazil, Australia, South America, North America, Europe and Africa all experienced massive droughts, corresponding to a decline in freshwater worldwide. NASA researchers concluded that because of the extreme conditions and changes in weather patterns that coincided with these droughts, global warming could play a huge role in how dry the continents have become. The same time frame also includes nine of the warmest years on record in modern history.
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Will the upward trend in freshwater supply return to pre-2015 levels? Researchers say it will be a waiting game to see what happens, but they are confident that more dry days will come across the planet.
Source: space.com
