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Earth Matters

Happy Anniversary, GRACE!

Fourteen years ago, a rocket launched a pair of satellites known as the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. Though just 487 kilograms (1,074 pounds) each, the satellites have produced out-sized scientific advances. As we noted in 2012, few hydrologists believed the satellites would be able to detect—no less measure—changes in groundwater when they launched. As the map below shows, scientists working with GRACE data have shown otherwise.

usewh_grc_2003-2012
This map shows how water supplies have changed between 2003 and 2012. GRACE measures subtle shifts in gravity from month to month. Variations in land topography or ocean tides change the distribution of Earth’s mass; the addition or subtraction of water also changes the gravity field. During that period, groundwater supplies decreased in California’s Central Valley and in the Southern High Plains (Texas and Oklahoma)—places that rely on ground water to irrigate crops. Eastern Texas, Alabama, and the Mid-Atlantic states also saw a decrease in ground water supplies because of long-term drought. The flood-prone Upper Missouri basin, on the other hand, stored more water over the decade.

GRACE has observed a number of significant changes in the water cycle. For instance, the mission revealed losses in ice mass on Greenland (where the loss is dramatic), Alaska, and Antarctica. The gravity measurements revealed how much the melting glaciers are contributing to sea level rise by recording both ice lost from land and the mass gained in the ocean. The image below shows changes in the Antarctic ice sheet between 2003 and 2010 as measured by GRACE.

AIS_trend_composite_720
GRACE measured changes in the Antarctic ice sheet from December 2003 through 2010. Red areas lost mass, while blue regions gained mass. (NASA map adapted from Luthke et al., 2012.)

As seen in the set of maps below, GRACE-based measurements can also be combined with ground-based measurements to map water at the surface, in the root zone, and as groundwater.

GRACE_SFSM_RTZSM_GWS
These maps compare conditions during the week of August 20, 2012, to the long-term average from 1948 to the present. For example, dark red regions represent dry conditions that should occur only 2 percent of the time (once every 50 years).

Thank you, GRACE! Here’s to many more years of observations. You can learn more about the mission here. Launch and clean room photos available here.