GRACE Stories
New NASA Software Simulates Science Missions for Observing Terrestrial Freshwater
From radar instruments smaller than a shoebox to radiometers the size of a milk carton, there are more tools available to scientists today for observing complex Earth systems than ever before. But this abundance of available sensors creates its own…
US, Germany Partnering on Mission to Track Earth’s Water Movement
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-Continuity mission will extend a decades-long record of following shifting water masses using gravity measurements. NASA and the German Space Agency at DLR (German Aerospace Center) have agreed to jointly build, launch, and operate a…
Google’s ‘A Passage of Water’ Brings NASA’s Water Data to Life
As part of the long-standing partnership, NASA worked with Google Arts & Culture to create an interactive digital experience around global freshwater.
NASA Measures Underground Water Flowing From Sierra to Central Valley
This source accounts for about 10% of all the water that enters this highly productive farmland, including rivers and rain. In a recent study, scientists found that a previously unmeasured source – water percolating through soil and fractured rock below…
Drought Makes its Home on the Range
As Tracy Schohr goes about her day, water is always on her mind. She’s thinking of it as she rides an all-terrain vehicle around the pasture, looks up hay prices and weather forecasts, and collects data on grazing and invasive…
International Cooperation Award for NASA JPL’s Michael Watkins, Michael Gross
The AIAA is honoring Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Watkins and Autonomous Systems Manager Gross, plus two European partners, for work on the GRACE missions. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics recently bestowed its 2021 International Cooperation Award on JPL…
NASA-led Study Reveals the Causes of Sea Level Rise Since 1900
Scientists have gained new insights into the processes that have driven ocean level variations for over a century, helping us prepare for the rising seas of the future. To make better predictions about the future impacts of sea level rise,…
GRACE, GRACE-FO Satellite Data Track Ice Loss at the Poles
During the exceptionally warm Arctic summer of 2019, Greenland lost 600 billion tons of ice — enough to raise global sea levels by nearly a tenth of an inch (2.2 millimeters) in just two months, a new study shows. Led…
Greenland, Antarctica Melting Six Times Faster Than in the 1990s
Observations from 11 satellite missions monitoring the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have revealed that the regions are losing ice six times faster than they were in the 1990s. If the current melting trend continues, the regions will be on…
GRACE-FO Shows the Weight of Midwestern Floods
In May 2019, after the wettest 12 months ever recorded in the Mississippi River Basin, the region was bearing the weight of 8 to 12 inches (200 to 300 millimeters) more water than average. New data from the U.S.-European Gravity…