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Full catalog/GRC-GFO_GRIDDED_AOD1B_JPL_MASCON_RL06.3
GRC-GFO_GRIDDED_AOD1B_JPL_MASCON_RL06.3·vRL06.3·dataset

Changing water weight across Earth's surface (GRACE-FO, 0.5 deg)

JPL GRACE/GRACE-FO Gridded-AOD1B Water-Equivalent-Thickness Surface-Mass Anomaly RL06.3 dataset for Tellus Level-3 mascon 0.5-degree grid
ocean NASA POCLOUD Level 3 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Modeled monthly changes in the weight of water (and air mass) sitting over Earth's surface, expressed as a surface-mass anomaly on a half-degree grid.

How it's made. Derived from atmosphere and ocean models used to clean up GRACE and GRACE-FO satellite gravity measurements, then smoothed onto a grid to match the Tellus mass-change products.

How & where you'd use it. Lets researchers add back or remove the modeled atmosphere and ocean signal when interpreting GRACE land and ocean water-mass changes.

What's measured

OCEANS › OCEAN PRESSURE › OCEAN BOTTOM PRESSUREATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE › PRESSURE ANOMALIES

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2002-04-04 → ongoing
  • Measured byGRACE (GRACE INTERFEROMETER) · GRACE-FO (GRACE-FO MWI)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -89.5, 180, 89.5
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
  • Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
  • Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description

GRACE non-tidal high-frequency atmospheric and oceanic mass variation models are routinely generated at GFZ as so-called Atmosphere and Ocean De-aliasing Level-1B (AOD1B) products (in terms of corresponding spherical harmonic geopotential coefficients) to be added to the background static gravity model during GRACE monthly gravity field determination. AOD1B products are 3-hourly series of spherical harmonic coefficients up to degree and order 180 which are routinely provided to the GRACE Science Data System and the user community with only a few days time delay. These products reflect spatio-temporal mass variations in the atmosphere and oceans deduced from an operational atmospheric model and corresponding ocean dynamics provided by an ocean model. The variability is derived by subtraction of a long-term mean of vertical integrated atmospheric mass distributions and a corresponding mean of ocean bottom pressure as simulated with the ocean model. The Gridded AOD1B data sets provided here contain the monthly mean AOD1B data in geolocated gridded form, smoothed or spatially aggregated to be consistent with the GRACE and GRACE-FO Tellus Level-3 data products of land and/or ocean mass anomalies. With these gridded AOD1B Level-3 products, users can remove or add the effects of the modeled mean monthly atmospheric and ocean bottom pressure change (e.g., to compare different models).

Get the data

grc-gfo_gridded_aod1b_jpl_mascon_rl06.3_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="GRC-GFO_GRIDDED_AOD1B_JPL_MASCON_RL06.3",
    version="RL06.3",
    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.