GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon: Global Water Storage Anomalies

4,551 independent estimates of monthly global water storage anomalies derived from GRACE and GRACE-FO satellite gravity data, processed by NASA JPL using the Mascon approach. This dataset provides water height anomalies in equivalent water thickness units without requiring decorrelation or smoothing. The RL06.3Mv04 version is an update intended for expert users who can apply their own algorithms for coastal separation.

Use Cases

• Monitoring global ice sheet mass loss based on monthly gravity field variations.
• Analyzing terrestrial groundwater storage changes based on equivalent water thickness anomalies.
• Studying ocean mass redistribution phenomena based on geolocated spherical cap mass concentration functions.
• Applying custom coastal leakage correction algorithms based on the dataset's raw, unfiltered mascon grids.

Strengths

• Contains 4,551 independent estimates of surface mass change derived from an equal-area 3-degree grid.
• Intrinsically removes correlated errors during computation, eliminating the need for decorrelation or smoothing.
• Provides data in a single netCDF file with anomalies in equivalent water thickness units.

Limitations

• Does not correct for leakage errors across coastlines, limiting use for near-coastal analysis without user correction.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Intended for expert use only, with a filtered version recommended for other users.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Derived from solving monthly gravity field variations on geolocated spherical cap mass concentration functions from GRACE and GRACE-FO satellites.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 01:22:44.657134; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global