Monthly changes in total ocean water mass (GRACE)
What it measures. Month-to-month changes in the total mass of water in the global ocean, expressed as anomalies (departures from a baseline) since April 2002.
How it's made. Derived from the GRACE and GRACE-FO satellite missions, which sense tiny shifts in Earth's gravity; the gravity fields are averaged over the ocean and corrected for atmosphere and slow crustal rebound.
How & where you'd use it. Lets scientists track how much water the ocean is gaining, which relates to melting land ice and sea level rise, and supports climate and sea-level research.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2002-04-17 → ongoing
- Measured byGRACE-FO · GRACE
- Processing levelLevel 4
- Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
- 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
This data set contains the monthly Global Ocean Mass Anomalies (goma) since 04/2002, as measured by the GRACE and GRACE Follow-On (G/GFO) satellite missions. The data are averaged over the global ocean domain, at monthly intervals (note: data gaps exist). This file contains the goma time series based on the spherical harmonic gravity fields provided by the G/GFO SDS centers: JPL, CSR, GFZ. The data are frequently updated as new monthly observations are acquired by the GFO mission. The processing of the spherical harmonics gravity field coefficients is as follows: (1) GAD + GSM: the monthly de-aliasing product GAD is added back to the GSM L2 gravity fields; (2) [GSM + GAD] coefficients are averaged over the global ocean with a coastal buffer of 300 km (to avoid land-ocean leakage); (3) the spatial mean of atmospheric loading of the entire global ocean domain is removed (via the GAA L2 data product). A GIA correction using the ICE-6GD model (Peltier et al., 2018) is applied.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="HOMAGE_GGFO_L4_GOMA_Monthly_v01",
version="1.0",
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. Official links
- Data Use and Citation Guidelines VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- GRACE-FO Mission VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- GRACE-FO Project VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Generic Data Readers VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Browse and download granules over HTTPS using the virtual directories GET DATA
- Browse granule search results in Earthdata Search GET DATA
- GRACE/GRACE-FO Level-3 Data Product User Handbook VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- HOMaGE Project VIEW RELATED INFORMATION