Impact of atmospheric loading on the water level in a well and methods for calibrating it

Groundwater monitoring can provide important information for efficiently managing groundwater resources. Barometric loading has important effects on the water level in wells. Correct analysis of these effects can provide diagnostic information on groundwater flow direction, whether the aquifer is confined or not, the presence of borehole storage and skin effects, and the air diffusivity coefficient of the unsaturated zone. With the vast amount of using of modern monitoring tools, highquality monitoring data provide basis and support for analyzing effects of atmospheric loading on water level in wells. This paper systematically analyzes response patterns of water level in wells to atmospheric loading in different types of aquifers. Then different methods for calibrating effects of atmospheric loading are analyzed and discussed. Lastly, multipleregression deconvolution was used to analyze the impact of atmospheric loading on water level in two observation wells in Beijing plain, and water levels were calibrated with the analysis results. The analysis results indicate that this method can efficiently analyze and calibrate the effect of atmospheric loading on water level in observation wells.