GPSs Used to Monitor Drought in the West

August 28, 2014 By: Erin Block

Scientists are using a network of Global Positioning System (GPS) stations throughout the western United States, which were originally intended for early earthquake detection, to show vanishing water supplies and the impact of drought upon the landscape. “All of a sudden we’ve turned the whole thing around,” says geophysicist Adrian Borsa of the of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “It’s a huge change, and it makes the network useful to whole new branches of scientists and managers.” Via National Geographic.