The amount of water stored in North America and northern Europe increased over the last decade, according to a study published online this week in Nature Geoscience. The findings demonstrate how satellite data can be used to study changes in water storage on land, which is essential for accurate projections of sea-level rise.

Hansheng Wang and colleagues used satellite measurements of the Earth’s gravity field to track changes in continental water storage in North America and Scandinavia over the last decade. They show that continental water storage has grown slightly in both these places since 2003.

The study will form part of a collaborative web focus on water availability published by Nature Geoscience and Nature Climate Change on 3 December 2012.