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Full catalog/GRACEFO_L2_CSR_MONTHLY_0063
GRACEFO_L2_CSR_MONTHLY_0063·v6.3·dataset

Earth's gravity field, monthly (GRACE-FO, CSR)

GRACE-FO Level-2 Monthly Geopotential Spherical Harmonics CSR Release 06.3 (RL06.3)
deformation NASA POCLOUD Level 2 ASCII
In plain English

What it measures. Month-by-month estimates of Earth's gravity field, which reflect where mass (such as water and ice) is gaining or shifting around the planet. The data come as mathematical coefficients rather than a ready-made map, and are marked for expert use only.

How it's made. Derived from the twin GRACE-FO satellites, which precisely measure tiny changes in the distance between them caused by gravity, processed by the University of Texas Center for Space Research into monthly averages from 2018 onward.

How & where you'd use it. Used by specialists to track changes in groundwater, ice sheets, glaciers, and sea level; most people would see these results through higher-level maps and products rather than the raw coefficients.

What's measured

SOLID EARTH › GRAVITY/GRAVITATIONAL FIELD › GRAVITY

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-05-22 → ongoing
  • Measured byGRACE-FO (GRACE-FO MWI, GRACE-FO LRI, ACC, GRACE-FO SCA)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -89, 180, 89
  • FormatsASCII
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Measure ground motion and subsidence (InSAR)
  • Track earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides
  • Map elevation and terrain change
Official description

FOR EXPERT USE ONLY. This dataset contains estimates of the total month-by-month geopotential of the Earth, derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission measurements, produced by the University of Texas (at Austin) Center for Space Research (CSR). The data are provided as spherical harmonic coefficients, averaged over approximately a month, and available from 2018 onward. These coefficients are derived from the Microwave Instrument (MWI) measured intersatellite range changes between the twin spacecraft of the GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On) mission. The GRACE-FO mission, a joint partnership between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), launched on 22 May 2018. It uses twin satellites to accurately map variations in the Earth's gravity field and surface mass distribution. It is designed as a successor to the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. This GRACE-FO RL06.3 data is an updated version of the GRACE-FO RL06.1 Level-2 data products. RL06.3 differs from RL06.1 only in the Level-1B accelerometer transplant data that is used for the GF2 satellite: Level-2 RL06.3 uses ACH1B RL04 that is contained within the ACX2 Level-1 bundle, which replaces ACH1B RL04 contained within the ACX Level-1 bundle that was used for Level-2 RL06.1 (note: ACX2-L1B is only applicable for 01/2023 onwards in wide-pointing operational mode; from 6/2018 through 12/2022, RL06.1 and RL06.3 GRACE-FO data are identical and based on ACX; ACX2 is not available for 03/2023-06/2023 as the satellites were not in wide-pointing mode during that period). All GRACE-FO RL06.3 Level-2 products are fully compatible with the GRACE RL06 level-2 fields. Refer to the mission page for more information.

Get the data

gracefo_l2_csr_monthly_0063_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="GRACEFO_L2_CSR_MONTHLY_0063",
    version="6.3",
    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.