Application of Independent Component Analysis in GRACE-Derived Water Storage Changes Interpretation: A Case Study of the Tibetan Plateau and Its Surrounding Areas

Independent component analysis (ICA) is applied to decompose the water storage changes derived from 132 months (2003.01 to 2013.12) Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) measurements over Tibetan Plateau. The results are then compared with those from NOAH and WaterGAP Global Hydrology Model (WGHM) hydrological models. Our assessments indicate that the decomposed components from the water storage changes and hydrological models agree well, indicating the ICA’s relatively robust performance in separating independent pattern from water storage observations with few a priori information.