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Characteristics of hydrological loading signals in GNSS observations: a case study from IITK and LCK4 stations

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Published/Copyright: January 7, 2026
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Journal of Applied Geodesy
From the journal Journal of Applied Geodesy

Abstract

The study investigates surface deformation caused by hydrological mass changes using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data and a hydrological model at two International GNSS Service (IGS) stations – IIT Kanpur (IITK) and Lucknow (LCK4) – located in the Ganges basin. A key novelty of this work is the comparative assessment of GNSS-observed and Land Surface Discharge Model (LSDM) – modeled vertical Earth surface deformation over North India. The goal is to assess how variations in terrestrial water storage affect vertical crustal deformation in this region. GNSS-derived vertical displacement time series were compared with those modeled using the Land Surface Discharge Model (LSDM), that provides terrestrial water storage changes at a 0.5° × 0.5° spatial resolution. Both GNSS and LSDM time series exhibit a clear annual cycle, reflecting the dominant impact of seasonal hydrological loading. To analyze the relationship between GNSS-observed and LSDM-modeled deformations, wavelet transform analysis was employed to detect time-localized spectral power and coherence across frequencies between the two datasets. Correlation coefficients between GNSS and LSDM deformation exceed 0.7 at both IGS stations, indicating strong agreement. However, LSDM explains only about 40–60 % of the variance observed in the GNSS data, suggesting the influence of other geophysical or environmental factors are not captured by the model. Wavelet coherence analysis confirms strong correlation in the annual frequency band.

Keywords: GNSS; land surface discharge model; hydrological loading; wavelet analysis; Earth’s surface deformation
Corresponding author: Jagat Dwipendra Ray, Department of Physics, B.N. College (Autonomous), Dhubri, Assam, India, E-mail: 

Acknowledgments

The Authors sincerely acknowledge International GNSS Service (IGS) and the Nevada Geodetic Laboratory (NGL). The authors sincerely thank the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) for making the Land Surface Discharge Model (LSDM) available for this research.

  1. Research ethics: Not applicable.

  2. Informed consent: Not applicable.

  3. Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  4. Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: None declared.

  5. Conflict of interest: The author states no conflict of interest.

  6. Research funding: Not applicable.

  7. Data availability: The GNSS time series of the two IGS stations were obtained from Nevada Geodetic Laboratory (https://geodesy.unr.edu/). The hydrological deformation has been estimated using LSDM model provided by GFZ (https://rz-vm480.gfz.de/repository/entry/show?entryid=aeb79094-7233-4ba2-bfcb-61e62550e7f5&output=data.gridaspoint.form).

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Received: 2025-10-20
Accepted: 2025-12-22
Published Online: 2026-01-07

© 2026 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

https://doi.org/10.1515/jag-2025-0101
Keywords for this article
GNSS; land surface discharge model; hydrological loading; wavelet analysis; Earth’s surface deformation
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