Water Resour Manage (2018) 32:1275–1290

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-017-1869-1

A Global Hydrological Drought Index Dataset Based

on Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
(GRACE) Data

Ning Nie 1,2 & Wanchang Zhang 3 & Hao Chen 3,4 &
Huadong Guo 3

Received: 26 December 2016 / Accepted: 30 November 2017 /

Published online: 22 December 2017
# Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2017

Abstract The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites have been used
in drought/flood monitoring by observing terrestrial water storage (TWS) change. Meteoro-
logical drought indicators or other identified disaster information were usually adopted in
association with GRACE-observed changes in TWS for the determination of the occurrence
and severity of droughts/floods. Inter-comparisons of dry conditions based on TWS change on
a global scale, however, were very difficult because TWS anomalies are not comparable for
different hydro-climatic regions. In this paper, we established a global dataset of GRACE-
based dimensionless drought index, the Total Storage Deficit Index (TSDI), which is spatially
comparable and capable of independently examining the characteristics of dry/wet spells
globally. The globally mapped GRACE-based TSDI was examined with some reported
extreme hydrologic events, which suggested that the results were fairly consistent with
documented drought/flood disaster information. Moreover, comparisons of the GRACE-
based TSDI with other frequently used drought indicators, such as the Standardized Precip-
itation Index (SPI), the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), and the Palmer Hydrological
Drought Index (PHDI), suggested that the TSDI was significantly correlated with the SPI at
three different time scales, the PDSI, and the PHDI over most parts of the global surface. The
longer the time scale of the selected SPI, the stronger the correlation tended to be with the
TSDI. Moreover, the correlation of the TSDI with the PHDI was higher than that with the

* Wanchang Zhang
zhangwc@radi.ac.cn

1
Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science (Ministry of Education), School of Geographic
Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
2
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control & Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing
University, Nanjing 210023, China
3
Key Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China
4
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
1276 Nie N. et al.

PDSI over almost the whole global surface. With regard to its performance, this study
suggested that the TSDI derived from GRACE-based TWS could be a useful dimensionless
index for global and regional hydrological drought monitoring, especially for areas where
meteo-hydrological observations are insufficient or human activities are intensive.

Keywords Global scale . GRACE . Drought index . Total Storage Deficit Index (TSDI)

1 Introduction

Conventional methodologies for monitoring drought/flood occurrence, extent and severity at

the global scale mainly make use of various meteo-hydrological data or their corresponding
drought indices, as well as information from related articles and reports, as a measure (Thomas
et al. 2014). However, limited meteo-hydrological observations and historical disaster records
make it difficult to exhaustively investigate the characteristics of droughts/floods for various
hydro-climatic regions around the world. In addition, prevailing methods currently rely heavily
on surface water (e.g., precipitation and discharge) and do not incorporate subsurface water
(Houborg et al. 2012).
Satellite remote sensing is a valuable tool to obtain droughts/floods information (Mu et al.
2013; Thomas et al. 2014). In 2002, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE)
satellites began to examine terrestrial water storage (TWS) variations which represent variations
of water resources throughout all water fluxes. By analyzing the spatial-temporal variations of
GRACE-based TWS, droughts and floods can be monitored and quantified to some extent.
Pioneer studies for the detection of drought/flood signals by means of GRACE measurements are
used to calculate the magnitude of the deviations of regionally averaged GRACE-based TWS
expressed as equivalent water height (EWH) or the volume or mass from normal conditions,
where negative (positive) deviations indicate water storage deficits (surpluses) (Chen et al. 2009).
Using this method, droughts and floods have been monitored on the regional scale, e.g., the
Amazon basin (Nie et al. 2015), southeast Australia (Leblanc et al. 2009), Texas (Long et al.
2013), Zambezi, southeastern United States (Thomas et al. 2014), the Haihe river basin (Wang
et al. 2014) and the Yangtze River basin (Zhang et al. 2015). Moreover, Thomas et al. (2014)
provided a framework for regional drought monitoring using this method. However, for this
described drought monitoring method, there are three weaknesses as follows:

(1) Weak independence. The understanding of land-atmospheric characteristics and hydro-

logical processes over the study region is very important in determining the severity of
droughts and floods (Thomas et al. 2014). Accordingly, GRACE-based TWS data had to
depend on the meteorological drought indices or other identified disaster information for
the determination of the droughts/floods occurrence and severity.
(2) Weak spatial comparability. Inter-comparisons of dry conditions based on TWS change
at the global scale are very difficult because the appearance of TWS anomalies is not the
same for different regions (Wanders et al. 2010). Generally speaking, the threshold for
determination of droughts/floods over humid (arid) regions is higher (lower), which will
generate higher (lower) deficits/surpluses.
(3) No well-defined drought intensity classification system. Because of the weak spatial
comparability of TWS anomalies between different hydro-climatic regions, there is no
unified drought intensity classification system on a global scale.
A Global Hydrological Drought Index Dataset Based on Gravity Recovery... 1277

By use of independent or model-assimilated GRACE TWS data, Yirdaw et al. (2008),

Houborg et al. (2012) and Cao et al. (2015) converted TWS data into different dimensionless
indices to investigate the occurrence and intensity of droughts at the regional scale, which
allows for the comparisons of drought severity between different locations. However,
GRACE-based dimensionless drought indices applied on a consistent, global scale were still
relatively rare in literatures.
The overall objectives of this work are (1) to establish a global dataset of GRACE-based
dimensionless drought index that is spatially comparable and capable of independently
examining the characteristics of dry/wet spells, and (2) to compare the GRACE-based
dimensionless drought index with other popular drought indices such as the Standardized
Precipitation Index (SPI), the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), and the Palmer Hydro-
logical Drought Index (PHDI) to identify the feasibility of the GRACE-based dimensionless
drought index, the Total Storage Deficit Index (TSDI), in quantifying the characteristics of dry/
wet spells globally.

2 Data Sets

2.1 GRACE Data

The GRACE satellites can accurately measure the averaged time-variable components of
the earth’s gravity field. Gravity fields’ variations over land at monthly timescales are
mainly caused by water mass variations, which enable us to observe TWS change over
global land areas (Tapley et al. 2004). The GRACE-based gravity fields are generally
described as the spherical harmonic coefficients (Swenson and Wahr 2002). In this work,
we used the monthly GRACE terrestrial water storage anomaly (TWSA) 1° × 1° gridded
data products (http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/) based on the RL05 spherical harmonic
coefficients from CSR. The gridded TWSA dataset in units of centimeters of
equivalent water height (EWH) was multiplied by the gridded scaling dataset
(Landerer and Swenson 2012) to regain part of the information loss in data processing.

2.2 Drought Indices

The American Meteorological Society (1997) classifies droughts into meteorological, agricul-
tural, hydrological and socioeconomic droughts. In order to understand the development,
variability and severity of dry and wet spells, numerous specialized drought indices have been
developed by using precipitation, temperature, soil moisture and so on (Heim 2002; Wanders
et al. 2010). Among various drought indices, SPI and PDSI and its additional term, PHDI, are
extensively used for drought monitoring.

2.2.1 SPI

The SPI (McKee et al. 1993) was developed to examine the precipitation deficit or surplus at
different timescales. These timescales indicate the impacts of droughts and anomalous wet
periods on different water resources. Generally, one may examine a shorter timescale SPI time
series for meteorological drought, and a longer timescale SPI for hydrological drought
monitoring. Because of the normalized distribution, the SPI can be compared between
1278 Nie N. et al.

different climate regions (WMO 2012). In this study, monthly 3-, 6- and 12-month SPIs (noted
as SPI-3, SPI-6 and SPI-12, respectively) at a 1.0° × 1.0° latitude-longitude grid spatial
resolution (National Center for Atmospheric Research 2013) were compared with the
GRACE-based TSDI.

2.2.2 PDSI

The PDSI (Palmer 1965) can estimate the departure relative to normal conditions in the surface
water balance by using a hydrological accounting system (Dai et al. 2004; Heim 2002). The PDSI
is primarily considered a meteorological drought indicator, and sometimes, an agricultural drought
indicator (Wanders et al. 2010). Theoretically, the PDSI, ranging from about −10 to +10, is a
standardized measure that can be compared between different regions and time (Dai et al. 2004).
However, some complaints about the PDSI still exist as follows: 1) the PDSI responds slowly to
recognize short dry spells (Narasimhan and Srinivasan 2005); 2) the spatial comparability of the
PDSI was not satisfactory because the standardization and the fixed calibration coefficients used
by the PDSI depended on limited sample data (Dai 2011a; Guttman et al. 1992); 3) the calculation
of potential evapotranspiration in the original Palmer model applying the Thornthwaite equation
(Thornthwaite 1948) based merely on latitude, month and temperature may lead to errors; and 4)
the PDSI was criticized for its treatment of all precipitation (including snow) as rainfall, and the
effects of frozen soils or vegetation on evaporation are not taken into account, in addition to some
other un-proper processes (Dai et al. 2004; Dai 2011a; Dai 2011b; Heim 2002). For improving
spatial comparability and minimizing errors of the PDSI as much as possible, sc_PDSI_pm (one
improved form of the PDSI) was proposed by calibrating the PDSI based on local conditions
(Wells et al. 2004) and estimating potential evapotranspiration by means of the Penman-Monteith
equation, instead of using the fixed calibration coefficients and Thornthwaite equation in the
original PDSI (Dai 2011a). In this work, we used the monthly sc_PDSI_pm at a 2.5° × 2.5°
latitude-longitude grid spatial resolution (http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/catalog/).

2.2.3 PHDI

The PHDI was also proposed by Palmer (1965) as an index for hydrological drought monitoring
based on the precipitation and potential evapotranspiration. The PHDI is similar to the PDSI but
relies more upon the value of the previous time period (Wanders et al. 2010). Therefore, the PHDI
is more suitable for monitoring hydrological droughts which often last longer. In this work, we
chose the monthly self-calibrated PHDI using the Penman-Monteith potential evapotranspiration
over global land areas with a spatial resolution of 2.5° × 2.5° (http://www.cgd.ucar.
edu/cas/catalog/) for comparison with the GRACE-based dimensionless drought index TSDI.

3 GRACE-Based Total Storage Deficit Index (TSDI)

3.1 Formulation of the GRACE-Based TSDI

The TSDI was introduced by Yirdaw et al. (2008) for investigating the 2002/2003 Canadian
Prairie droughts. The TSDI was considered a dimensionless hydrological drought index
regarding its definition because it characterizes droughts from the perspective of TWS. In
the study of Yirdaw et al. (2008), the GRACE-based TWSA was used as the input parameter
A Global Hydrological Drought Index Dataset Based on Gravity Recovery... 1279

for calculating the TSDI in order to characterize dry and wet conditions. Afterward, Agboma
et al. (2009) estimated the TSDI over one Canadian Prairie catchment using TWS simulated
with the VIC model. Cao et al. (2015) presented the drought characterization during 2003–
2012 in northwestern China by using the GRACE-based TSDI. Awange et al. (2016) estimated
the SPI and GRACE-based TSDI to characterize the droughts over the Greater Horn of Africa.
Wanders et al. (2010) evaluated the performance of the TSDI over 961 cells that were
randomly selected across the world. In their study, TWS was calculated as the sum of
groundwater and soil moisture simulated with a hydrological model developed by Van Lanen
et al. (1996). Until now, no further research has been done on the TSDI, nor has it been used on
a global scale. In this paper, we constructed a monthly gridded TSDI time series on a global
scale based on the GRACE TWSA data from April 2002 to June 2014.
The TSDI can be calculated by the following two steps. First, the total storage deficit (TSD)
at monthly scale is computed as (Yirdaw et al. 2008):
TWSAi; j −MTWSA j
TSDi; j ¼  100 ð1Þ
MaxTWSA j −MinTWSA j

where TSDi,j and TWSAi,j are the total storage deficit (%) and TWSA, respectively, in the jth
month (Jan.-Dec.) of year i (2002–2014); and MTWSAj, MinTWSAj and MaxTWSAj are the
long-term mean, minimum and maximum TWSA of the jth month, respectively. By using
Eq. 1, the seasonal variation of TWS has been removed so that the value of the TSD can be
compared between different seasons.
Second, the TSDI should be calculated based on the TSD values. The original method for
computation of the TSDI introduced by Yirdaw et al. (2008) is inconvenient to apply on a global
scale. Moreover, the critical parameter (named C by Yirdaw et al.), which symbolizes the TSDI
values for a period of dryness, was obtained from the drought monograph (Agboma et al. 2009) or
determined by the aid of another drought indicator, e.g., the SPI (Cao et al. 2015), in different
regions, and there is no uniform criteria to define the drought monograph (Cao et al. 2015). Hence,
in order to establish a convenient, globally applicable drought index dataset, in this study, the TSDI
is simply computed by standardizing the values of the TSD as follows (Wanders et al. 2010):
TSDi; j −μ
TSDI i; j ¼ ð2Þ
σ
where μ and σ are, respectively, the average value and standard deviation of the TSD.
One complete annual series of global maps of GRACE-based TSDI at a monthly scale in
2010 is shown in Fig. 1. The TSDI values for all the grids range from −3 to +3, representing
extremely dry to extremely wet conditions. Because the TSDI values were standardized
between −3 and +3, they can be spatially comparable between different hydro-climatic regions
(arid or humid) (Narasimhan and Srinivasan 2005). Because there were no drought categories
for the TSDI, the drought categories of the SPI were applied to determine the dry/wet intensity
resulting from the TSDI. Because both the SPI and the TSDI are normally distributed, the
same classification is shared by both of them.

3.2 Spatial Distribution and Variability

The standard deviation values together with mean values of the GRACE-based TSDI,
computed spatially from the TSDI of each grid over the whole global land area at monthly
intervals, were applied to detect the spatial variability of the TSDI. The spatial mean and
1280 Nie N. et al.

Fig. 1 Example of one complete annual series of global maps of the TSDI at a monthly scale from January 2010
to December 2010

standard deviation values of the TSDI during April 2002 to June 2014 are shown in Fig. 2. At
the global level, the spatial mean and standard deviation values of the TSDI are approximately
0.0 and 1.0, respectively, which indicates that the TSDI is also normally distributed spatially.
A Global Hydrological Drought Index Dataset Based on Gravity Recovery... 1281

Fig. 2 The spatial mean and standard deviation value of the TSDI on a global scale during each month. The
mean TSDI time series was superimposed on the blue line. The vertical grey lines around the mean TSDI
represent ±1 standard deviation values

The increase (decrease) of the standard deviation represents a considerable increase (decrease)
of the spatial variability of the TSDI (Narasimhan and Srinivasan 2005). In general, the spatial
standard deviation of the TSDI was a bit higher during the northern hemisphere summer than
other seasons. This implies that the abnormal dry and wet conditions occurred more frequently
or more severely in the summer, which generated greater deviation from the mean value.

4 Results and Analysis

4.1 Performance of the TSDI during Extreme Hydrologic Events

To evaluate the performance of the GRACE-based TSDI, we examined their results in relation
to some documented extreme hydrologic events during 2002–2014. First, we evaluated the
GRACE-based TSDI performance on a global scale during some reported droughts. In North
America, drought conditions affected the contiguous United States throughout 2012. By 25
September, approximately 64.6% of the United States suffered a moderate to exceptional
drought, with the highest drought footprint during 2000–2012 (WMO 2013). In 2010,
southwestern Amazonia, the Mato Grosso state of Brazil, north-central Bolivia and contiguous
areas were affected by a severe drought (Lewis et al. 2011), and in October 2010, the Rio
Negro river (one major tributary of the Amazon) fell to its historically lowest level (since
1902) (Xu et al. 2011). In Asia, a severe drought hit southern China in May–August 2006,
which left 134 dead and 18 million residents affected. Economic losses caused by the drought
were estimated at US $29.1 billion (Guha-Sapir et al. 2015). In 2012, southeastern Europe
suffered a significant drought during the winter, spring and summer. Portugal, France as well
as the United Kingdom and Germany reported their driest February or March during the past
few decades, and Spain recorded its driest January–March since 1947 (WMO 2013). In Africa,
the Greater Horn of Africa and southeastern Africa experienced a drought throughout 2005.
During October–December 2006, eastern Australia experienced the worst drought on record
1282 Nie N. et al.

with lower than average precipitation (Guha-Sapir et al. 2015). These documented droughts
were fairly well captured by the GRACE-based TSDI in Fig. 3.
Meanwhile, the performance of GRACE-based TSDI results during some reported
floods and extreme precipitation events were also evaluated. In North America, the
eastern United States experienced wetter than average conditions during 2009 (WMO
2010). Heavy and intensive rainfall triggered floods in some regions of the southeastern
United States in the last third of September (Guha-Sapir et al. 2015; Li et al. 2010). The
United States as a whole reported its wettest October in 115 years. In South America,
heavy rainfall and flooding hit northeast Brazil in April and May 2009 (WMO 2010). On
the other hand, drought conditions affected central Argentina and Paraguay throughout
2009 (Guha-Sapir et al. 2015; WMO 2010). In Asia, parts of Iran, Pakistan, India,
Afghanistan and China, and the Sakha Republic within the Russian Federation suffered
flooding in June and July 2007. In eastern Europe, persistent heavy rainfall produced
destructive flooding in May–August 2005 (Guha-Sapir et al. 2015). In Africa, many parts
of the Sahel and western Africa suffered extreme flooding between July and September
2012, which left 3 million people affected (WMO 2013). In Australia, unusually heavy
rainfall resulted in widespread flooding in eastern Australia from late December 2010 to
early February 2011 (Guha-Sapir et al. 2015). The GRACE-based TSDI results were also
consistent with these floods and extreme precipitation events (Fig. 4). However, because
of the coarse spatial resolution and monthly production frequency of GRACE satellites,
the flash flood caused by short-term intensive rainfall cannot be captured by the
GRACE-based TSDI sometimes.
For a clear impression of the performance of the GRACE-based TSDI on a global
scale, an example of a one month TSDI in July 2012 was presented in Fig. 5b. Major
extreme hydrologic events were also labeled in Fig. 5b, and the disaster information was

Fig. 3 GRACE-based TSDI results during some reported droughts

A Global Hydrological Drought Index Dataset Based on Gravity Recovery... 1283

Fig. 4 GRACE-based TSDI results during some reported floods and extreme precipitation events

obtained from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO 2013) and the International
Disaster Database (Guha-Sapir et al. 2015). Generally, TSDI-identified major extreme
hydrologic events were consistent with the documented disaster information. Although
GRACE TWS can be used to detect the magnitude of the water deficit or surplus (see
Fig. 5a), the severity of dry and wet conditions across different hydro-climatic regions
cannot be directly comparable using TWS. Obviously, the GRACE-based TSDI can help
resolve this problem as much as possible.

4.2 Comparison with Other Drought Indices

4.2.1 TSDI vs. SPI

We examined the correlations between the GRACE-based TSDI and the SPI at 3-, 6- and 12-
month timescales. Spatial distributions of Pearson’s correlation coefficients (R) between the
TSDI and SPI-3, SPI-6 and SPI-12 on a global scale are presented in Fig. 6a–c.
The TSDI was significantly positively correlated with the SPI at three different time
scales over most parts of the global land area (Fig. 6a–c), which implies that the dry and
wet conditions evaluated by the TSDI generally agreed with those evaluated by the SPI.
Poor correlation mainly appeared over parts of northern Canada, northern China, the
Middle East, northern Africa and Mongolia, where annual precipitation is evidently less
than other land areas (Fig. 6d). This is because, in addition to precipitation, other water
fluxes, such as evapotranspiration, groundwater, and ice and snow cover (where appro-
priate), also play key roles in the determination of the dry and wet conditions over these
regions. However, the SPI relies only on precipitation and cannot be responsible for
other water fluxes. In contrast, the TSDI was derived based on the information about
1284 Nie N. et al.

Fig. 5 a Deviation of the TWSA in July 2012 from the mean TWSA for July during 2002–2013; b the GRACE-
based TSDI in July 2012

TWS variations throughout all water fluxes. Hence, the performance of the TSDI should
be better than the SPI over arid regions.
With the longer timescale of the SPI time series, there tends to be a stronger
correlation with the TSDI, as can be recognized in Fig. 6. Among the SPI at the three
different timescales, SPI-12 showed the strongest correlation with the TSDI over
almost all global land areas. The SPI-12 compares the precipitation for 12 consecutive
months with the precipitation totals from the same 12-month period over the historical
record, reflecting long-term weather conditions. Hence, the SPI-12 usually reveals the
impact of drought on streamflows and even groundwater levels, which is more suitable
for hydrological drought monitoring (WMO 2012). Therefore, the TSDI derived from
A Global Hydrological Drought Index Dataset Based on Gravity Recovery... 1285

Fig. 6 Correlations between the GRACE-based TSDI and SPI-3 (a), SPI-6 (b), and SPI-12 (c). R > 0.15 implies
that positive correlation exists at the significant level of p < 0.1. Blank areas represent no data or a lack of
sufficient data. Fig. 6d exhibits the mean annual precipitation during 2002–2013. The mean annual precipitation
was calculated based on the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) monthly precipitation datasets
(Adler et al. 2003)

TWS could be a useful index of hydrological drought, considering not only its
definition but also its performance.

4.2.2 TSDI vs. PDSI & PHDI

Because the spatial resolution of the TSDI is 1° × 1°, the PDSI and PHDI time series were re-
sampled to the same spatial resolution for comparisons. Pearson’s correlation coefficients (R)
for the TSDI with PDSI and PHDI on a global scale can be found in Fig. 7.
As indicated in Fig. 7, the TSDI was highly correlated with both the PDSI and the
PHDI over almost all global land areas. A low and insignificant correlation mainly
appears over the cold regions (e.g., northern Canada and the Labrador Peninsula) and
arid regions (e.g., northern India, Central Asia, northern China, the Middle East, northern

Fig. 7 Correlations between the GRACE-based TSDI and PDSI (a), and PHDI (b). R > 0.15 implies that
positive correlation exists at the significant level of p < 0.1
1286 Nie N. et al.

Africa and Mongolia). Although calculations of the PDSI and the PHDI are concerned
with five water fluxes, including the precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff, and re-
charge and discharge of soil water, treatments of all forms of precipitation as immedi-
ately available rainfall result in uncertainties in the determination of the dry and wet
conditions over cold regions (Dai 2011a). Moreover because of the poor availability of
forcing data together with the limitation of the assumptions and structure of the hydro-
logical accounting system, high uncertainty of the simulation capabilities exists over the
extreme arid and cold regions. These could cause the PDSI and the PHDI to perform
unsatisfactorily over the extreme arid and cold regions. In addition, GRACE-based TWS
and TSDI data can capture groundwater and human-induced variations signals that
cannot be detected in the climate-driven PDSI and PHDI values (Dai 2011a; Yang
et al. 2013). Therefore, insignificant correlations should occur over arid regions, where
human water use and management play the key role in the water cycle (Voss et al. 2013).

Fig. 8 Spatially averaged TSDI and PHDI at a monthly scale for seven large river basins
A Global Hydrological Drought Index Dataset Based on Gravity Recovery... 1287

Generally, the correlation of the TSDI with the PHDI and the PDSI was higher than that of
the TSDI with the SPI at three different timescales over most regions. This is expected because
the PDSI and the PHDI account for not only precipitation but also four other water fluxes
(evapotranspiration, runoff, and recharge and discharge of the soil water), in contrast to the
SPI, which relies only on precipitation. Additionally, the correlation of the TSDI with the
PHDI was higher than the correlation of the TSDI with the PDSI over almost all global land
areas. According to Figs. 6 and 7, the correlation between the TSDI and the PHDI was the
highest among the correlation of the TSDI with all examined drought indices. These again
imply that the TSDI is more suitable for longer-term drought or hydrological drought
monitoring. Figure 8 illustrates the spatially averaged TSDI and PHDI at a monthly scale
for seven selected large river basins around the world. It can be seen that the TSDI agrees well
with the PHDI variations over the seven selected large river basins. A relatively low correlation
appeared in the Yangtze River basin where human activities, such as water consumption for
irrigation, industry, etc. as well as the building of reservoirs (e.g., the Three Gorges Reservoir),
intensively affect the water cycle and cannot be reflected by the PHDI (Zhang et al. 2015).

5 Conclusions

In this study, we established a global hydrological drought dimensionless index dataset of

GRACE-based TSDI that is capable of independently examining the characteristics of dry/wet
spells. Seasonal variations of TWS have been removed in the formulation of the TSDI so that
the value of the TSDI can be compared across seasons. Furthermore, the TSDI values were
standardized between −3 and +3, representing extremely dry to extremely wet conditions, and
they were also normally distributed in space at the global level. Hence, the TSDI was spatially
comparable among different hydro-climatic regions.
The GRACE-based TSDI on a global scale was compared with some reported extreme
hydrologic events during 2002–2014, which shows that they are fairly well consistent.
However, it is sometimes incapable of capturing flash floods caused by short-term
intensive rainfall because of the coarse spatial resolution and monthly production fre-
quency of GRACE satellites.
Comparisons of the GRACE-based TSDI with other common drought indices, i.e., the SPI
at three different scales, the PDSI and the PHDI, suggested that significant positive correlations
existed among these indices over most parts of global land areas. As the time scale for the SPI
increases, the correlation with the TSDI tends to become stronger. Moreover, the TSDI is more
closely correlated with the PHDI than with the PDSI over almost all global land areas. These
results indicated that the TSDI derived from GRACE-based TWS could be a useful dimen-
sionless index for inferring hydrological drought conditions, regarding not only its definition
but also its performance.
Hydrological drought indices are related to stream flow, groundwater levels, and so
on. Existing hydrological drought indices generally use observed and simulated data.
However, exhaustive observations of these relevant hydrological variables remain chal-
lenging, and simulations of these variables are also limited by the assumptions and
structure of the hydrological model as well as the accuracy of the related meteorological
forcing data. The GRACE-based TSDI provides a dimensionless index to quantify global
hydrological drought severity, which is not limited by a hydrological model or the
relevant meteo-hydrological data. Furthermore, the GRACE-based TSDI can capture
1288 Nie N. et al.

the information about TWS variations (including human-induced variation signals)

throughout all water fluxes, while most common hydrological drought indices tend to
be based on parts of hydrological components of the water balance.
Ideally, GRACE-based TSDI datasets of at least 20–30 years are preferable in monitoring
droughts and floods. Although the 12-year record of the GRACE-based TSDI may be
relatively short, we offered a new perspective for establishing hydrological drought dimen-
sionless index datasets on a global scale, and these datasets will be continuously updated
throughout the lifetime of the GRACE satellites and the follow-on GRACE missions. The
GRACE-based TSDI will be helpful in providing a better understanding of hydrological
drought. It should also be useful in archiving historical information of extreme hydrological
events for regional disaster mitigation efforts, especially for areas where meteo-hydrological
observations are insufficient or human activities are intensive.

Acknowledgments This work was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (No.
2016YFA0602302 and No. 2016YFB0502502).

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of Interest No conflict of interest.

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