Downscaling Vertical GPS Observations to Derive Watershed‐Scale Hydrologic Loading in the Northern Rockies

GPS time series of vertical displacement include the elastic response of the Earth to a combination of regional and local loading signals arising from hydrologic mass transfer. The regional loading, controlled by seasonal, synoptic precipitation patterns, dominates the displacement of individual stations and is highly correlated among stations with separation distances from 10 to 300 km. The local loading, controlled by small‐scale precipitation and storage variability, has much shorter correlation lengths of