Earlier this month NASA published a study showing that 1/3 of big groundwater basins across the earth were in distress. One of them was what they list as the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains aquifer, which provides irrigation and drinking water to a large area of south Georgia, Alabama, Florida and other states around the Gulf of Mexico. This could be a problem in the future if rising temperatures increase evaporation, which could lead to needed increases in irrigation to supply water for crops and livestock. This aquifer is one of two in the US that are experiencing a net loss in water as observed by NASA’s GRACE satellite system. You can read more about it at https://www.nasa.gov/jpl/grace/study-third-of-big-groundwater-basins-in-distress/.
Related to this is a story on NASA’s H20 radio show at https://h2oradio.org/NASA_JPL.html, which describes more about how GRACE works and what the changes we are seeing mean for the future of our water supplies. You can also read about it at https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA20204.
