NASA's Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) released the RL06.3 update to several Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on (GRACE-FO) datasets produced by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), including Level 2 gravity anomalies as well as Level 3 (including MASCON) ocean bottom pressure and terrestrial water mass anomalies.
The GRACE-FO mission, a joint partnership between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), launched on May 22, 2018. It uses twin satellites to accurately map variations in the Earth's gravity field and surface mass changes, extending the 15-year data record of the GRACE mission (2002-2017). More information regarding the GRACE-FO project can be found at JPL's project page.
The data provide global coverage and are reported as monthly averages, available from May 2018 onward with forward streaming. The new release is based on an update to the Level 2 RL06.1 products. RL06.3 differs from RL06.1 only in the Level 1B accelerometer transplant data that is used for the GF2 satellite. The Level 3 products are then derived from the new Level 2 data. More information on the updates can be found on the data set landing page abstracts and the Level 2 product release notes.
These new GRACE-FO JPL data sets are described and discoverable via the Earthdata catalog.
DOIs
- GRACEFO_L2_JPL_MONTHLY_0063 (10.5067/GFL20-MJ063)
- TELLUS_GRFO_L3_JPL_RL06.3_OCN_v04 (10.5067/GFOCN-3J634)
- TELLUS_GRFO_L3_JPL_RL06.3_LND_v04 (10.5067/GFLND-3J634)
- TELLUS_GRAC-GRFO_MASCON_GRID_RL06.3_V4 (10.5067/TEMSC-3MJ634)
- TELLUS_GRAC-GRFO_MASCON_CRI_GRID_RL06.3_V4 (10.5067/TEMSC-3JC634)
Citations
Landerer, F. W., Flechtner, F. M., Save, H., Webb, F. H., Bandikova, T., Bertiger, W. I., et al. (2020). Extending the global mass change data record: GRACE Follow-On instrument and science data performance. Geophysical Research Letters, 47, e2020GL088306. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088306
Landerer F. W. and S. C. Swenson, Accuracy of scaled GRACE terrestrial water storage estimates. Water Resources Research, Vol 48, W04531, 11 PP, doi:10.1029/2011WR011453, 2012.
Wiese, D. N., F. W. Landerer, and M. M. Watkins. 2016. Quantifying and reducing leakage errors in the JPL RL05M GRACE mascon solution , Water Resour. Res, 52. https://doi.org//10.1002/2016WR019344
If you have questions, please contact PO.DAAC user services or visit PO.DAAC on Earthdata Forum.