Satellite-based monitoring of groundwater depletion in California's Central Valley.

Range change data, obtained from Synthetic Aperture Radar satellites, form the basis for estimates of aquifer volume change in California's Central Valley. The estimation algorithm incorporates a function penalizing changes far from known well locations, linking the aquifer volume changes to agricultural, industrial, and municipal pumping within the Tulare basin. We show that the range changes are compatible with the hypothesis that the source of aquifer volume changes are variations in effective pressure around documented wells.

Hydromechanical heterogeneities of a mature fault zone: impacts on fluid flow.

In this paper, fluid flow is examined for a mature strike-slip fault zone with anisotropic permeability and internal heterogeneity. The hydraulic properties of the fault zone were first characterized in situ by microgeophysical (VP and σc ) and rock-quality measurements (Q-value) performed along a 50-m long profile perpendicular to the fault zone. Then, the local hydrogeological context of the fault was modified to conduct a water-injection test.

The ESA microgravity database.

To facilitate and optimise access to the results of previous microgravity experiments, ESA is establishing a Microgravity Database (MGDB). The database will give scientists access to descriptions of all experiments related to microgravity research carried out on ESA and NASA missions since the 1960s. MGDB incorporates both a local database available for PCs and Apple Macintoshes, and a remote database which can be accessed via the ESRIN Data Dissemination Network (DDN) and public X.