Nasa satellites make grim discovery on the surface of our planet

We actually might be finished

Last year was the warmest ever on record with 2024 looking set to break the very much unwanted record.

Between 2014 and 2016, Earth was hit with one of the largest El Niño events ever seen, leading to fluctuating rainfall patterns leading to drought in some areas and heavy rain in others.

El Niño is a climate pattern that occurs when the ocean surface in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean becomes warmer than average causing trade winds to weaken or even change direction, leading to warmer waters on the west coast of the Americas.

Experts believed the weather event's intensity was caused by global warming with NASA satellites revealing that things may in fact have never gone back to normal.

Analysing data from twin satellites GRACE-FO, NASA scientists have actually uncovered that the amount of fresh water on our planet has diminished dramatically up to May 2014 and was never restored to previous levels.

These satellites have been tracking Earth's water masses since 2002 as well as monitored changes in ice masses, lakes and sea level.

Measurements found that the average amount of water on the planet was 1,200 km3 lower in the period between 2015–2023 than in the period 2002–2014.

The decrease in this fresh water is thought to have begun in 2014 following a severe drought in northern and central Brazil with a multitude of droughts in Australasia, South America, North America, Africa and Europe proceeding it.

Scientists believe that, with continued climate change, this issue will only worsen in the coming years as hotter temperatures cause the atmosphere to hold more water vapour which results in longer periods between intense rainfall, which in turn becomes shorter.

This ultimately means that less water makes its way back to groundwater reservoirs, leading to a depletion of reserves.

The results have been published in the journal Surveys in Geophysics.