The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment（GRACE） satellite mission provides a unique opportunity to quantitatively study terrestrial water storage（TWS） variations. In this paper,the terrestrial water storage variations in the Poyang Lake Basin are recovered from the GRACE gravity data from January 2003 to March 2014 and compared with the Global Land Data Assimilation System（GLDAS） hydrological models and satellite altimetry. Furthermore, the impact of soil moisture content from GLDAS and rainfall from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission（TRMM） on TWS variations are investigated. Our results indicate that the TWS variations from GRACE, GLDAS and satellite altimetry have a general consistency. The TWS trends in the Poyang Lake Basin determined from GRACE, GLDAS and satellite altimetry are increasing at 0.0141 km^3/a, 0.0328 km^3/a and 0.0238 km^3/a,respectively during the investigated time period. The TWS is governed mainly by the soil moisture content and dominated primarily by the precipitation but also modulated by the flood season of the Yangtze River as well as the lake and river exchange water.
Continental water storage plays a major role in Earth＇s climate system. However, temporal and spatial variations of continental water are poorly known, particularly in Africa. Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment （GRACE） satellite mission provides an opportunity to estimate terrestrial water storage （TWS） variations at both continental and river-basin scales. In this paper, seasonal and secular variations of TWS within Africa for the period from January 2003 to July 2013 are assessed using monthly GRACE coefficients from three processing centers （Centre for Space Research, the German Research Centre for Geo- sciences, and NASA＇s Jet Propulsion Laboratory）. Monthly grids from Global Land Data Assimilation System （GLDAS）-I and from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission （TRMM）- 3B43 models are also used in order to understand the reasons of increasing or decreasing water storage. Results from GRACE processing centers show similar TWS estimates at seasonal timescales with some differences concerning inter-annual trend variations. The largest annual signals of GRACE TWS are observed in Zambezi and Okavango River basins and in Volta River Basin. An increasing trend of 11.60 mm/a is found in Zambezi River Basin and of 9 mm/a in Volta River Basin. A phase shift is found between rainfall and GRACE TWS （GRACE TWS is preceded by rainfall} by 2-3 months in parts of south central Africa. Comparing GLDAS rainfall with TRMM model, it is found that GLDAS has a dry bias from TRMM model.
