Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/ANTARCTICA_MASS_TELLUS_MASCON_CRI_TIME_SERIES_RL06.3_V4
ANTARCTICA_MASS_TELLUS_MASCON_CRI_TIME_SERIES_RL06.3_V4·vRL06.3Mv04·dataset

How Antarctica's ice mass is changing over time (GRACE)

Tellus Level-4 Antarctica Mass Anomaly Time Series from JPL GRACE/GRACE-FO Mascon CRI Filtered Release 06.3 version 04
cryosphere NASA POCLOUD Level 4 ASCII
In plain English

What it measures. A running record of how the total mass of Antarctica's ice has changed over time, averaged across the whole continent. It shows whether the ice sheet is gaining or losing mass.

How it's made. Derived from the GRACE and GRACE-FO satellite pair, which sense tiny shifts in Earth's gravity, processed at NASA's JPL into a simple time-series table of mass change.

How & where you'd use it. Used to track Antarctica's ice loss, a major contributor to sea-level rise, and to understand long-term climate trends at the pole.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › GLACIER MASS BALANCE/ICE SHEET MASS BALANCECLIMATE INDICATORS › CRYOSPHERIC INDICATORS › GLACIAL MEASUREMENTS › GLACIER MASS BALANCE/ICE SHEET MASS BALANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2002-04-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byGRACE (GRACE INTERFEROMETER) · GRACE-FO (GRACE-FO MWI)
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsASCII
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Measure sea ice, snow cover and glaciers
  • Watch ice-sheet elevation change
  • Track freeze/thaw and permafrost
Official description

This dataset is a time series of mass variability averaged over all of Antarctica. It provides the ice mass changes of Antarctica over time. The mass variability are derived from JPL GRACE Mascon Ocean, Ice, and Hydrology Equivalent Water Height CRI Filtered RL063Mv04 dataset, which can be found at https://doi.org/10.5067/TEMSC-3JC634. A more detailed description on the Mascon solution, including the mathematical derivation, implementation of geophysical constraints, and solution validation, please see Watkins et al., 2015, doi: 10.1002/2014JB011547. The mass variability are provided as an ASCII table.

Get the data

antarctica_mass_tellus_mascon_cri_time_series_rl06.3_v4_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ANTARCTICA_MASS_TELLUS_MASCON_CRI_TIME_SERIES_RL06.3_V4",
    version="RL06.3Mv04",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from POCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.