Abstract: Located in the arid area of northwest China, the Tarim River Basin(TRB) is characterized by scarce precipitation and fragile ecology. Water resource is the key factor to maintain the social and economic development and ecological health of TRB. Here we identify the groundwater storage (GWS) variations in the Tarim River Basin from 2003 to 2019 using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data and Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) data, and analyzes its spatial and temporal distribution. The results show that the GWS in TRB presents a decreasing trend during 2003 to 2019 , at a rate of -2.13 mm/a. The decline trend of GWS variations decrease gradually from north to south, and the GWS depletion is largest in the middle part of the southern Tianshan Mountains while the GWS increases significantly in the lower reaches of Tarim River, which was related to the emergency ecological water transport in the past decade. Besides, the GWS variations in the TRB are consistent with annual precipitation anomalies. With less precipitation, i.e., 2004, 2006-2009，GWS in the TRB decreases significantly，while increases correspondingly during rainy year. The method based on GRACE and GLDAS data has great potential applications in analyzing GWS variations for monitoring groundwater resources in the Tarim River Basin, which lacks of groundwater monitoring networks.

Key words: GRACE, GLDAS, Tarim River Basin, groundwater storage variations