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Spatially variable stage-driven groundwater-surface water interaction inferred from time-frequency analysis of distributed temperature sensing data

Kisa Mwakanyamale·Lee Slater·Frederick D. Day-Lewis·Mehrez Elwaseif·Carole D. Johnson
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Abstract

Characterization of groundwater-surface water exchange is essential for improving understanding of contaminant transport between aquifers and rivers. Fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing (FODTS) provides rich spatiotemporal datasets for quantitative and qualitative analysis of groundwater-surface water exchange. We demonstrate how time-frequency analysis of FODTS and synchronous river stage time series from the Columbia River adjacent to the Hanford 300-Area, Richland, Washington, provides spatial information on the strength of stage-driven exchange of uranium contaminated groundwater in response to subsurface heterogeneity. Although used in previous studies, the stage-temperature correlation coefficient proved an unreliable indicator of the stage-driven forcing on groundwater discharge in the presence of other factors influencing river water temperature. In contrast, S-transform analysis of the stage and FODTS data definitively identifies the spatial distribution of discharge zones and provided information on the dominant forcing periods (≥2 d) of the complex dam operations driving stage fluctuations and hence groundwater-surface water exchange at the 300-Area.

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Geophysical Research LettersArticle
90° N90° S · 180° W ← longitude → 180° E
Source-reported bounding extent: 46.259468° to 46.370457° latitude; -119.400291° to -119.211394° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

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Kisa Mwakanyamale, Lee Slater, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, Mehrez Elwaseif, Carole D. Johnson. 2012-03-20. Spatially variable stage-driven groundwater-surface water interaction inferred from time-frequency analysis of distributed temperature sensing data. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011gl050824

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