GRACE JPL 6.0: Non-Tidal Atmosphere Geopotential Coefficients

Geopotential field estimates derived from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission measurements and a non-tidal atmospheric model. The data are provided as spherical harmonics averaged over approximately a month, produced by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The primary objective is to measure time-variable components of Earth's gravity field using precise microwave ranging between twin spacecraft.

Use Cases

• Modeling global mass transport based on time-variable gravity field measurements.
• Analyzing atmospheric pressure contributions to Earth's gravity field based on the non-tidal atmospheric model.
• Studying long-term climate signals like ice sheet mass loss or groundwater changes based on monthly spherical harmonic coefficients.
• Validating and improving geophysical models using precise satellite-derived orbit and range change data.

Strengths

• Data originates from the NASA JPL, a leading authority in space science and geodesy.
• Based on continuous, precise measurements from the GRACE twin spacecraft mission.
• Includes measurements from high-accuracy accelerometers, star cameras, and GPS receivers as described.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Collection Method

Derived from GRACE mission microwave ranging and accelerometer data, analyzed to extract Earth gravity field model parameters.

Time Range

Temporal coverage is not explicitly stated, but data is averaged monthly.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 01:40:31.801981; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage, inferred from the mission's near-polar orbit.