The U.S. Geological Survey Southwest Gravity Program aims to provide high-precision time-lapse gravity (repeat microgravity) data for hydrologic studies in the southwestern US. Recent projects include monitoring recharge underneath ephemeral-stream channels, monitoring aquifer-storage change in unconfined and compressible aquifers, measuring preferential storage change at an artificial-recharge facility, and estimating specific yield through the correlation of gravity and water-level change in wells. Projects range in scale from the site-specific (individual recharge basins) to alluvial basin (e.g., the Tucson and Avra Valley groundwater basins).
Southwest Gravity Program Data Releases
Fact sheet about hydrologic applications of the repeat microgravity method
Additional information can be found on the AzWSC's
website.
This ScienceBase site contains the Program QA/QC plans for data collection and processing, software tools to process relative-gravity data, and project data.
