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Full catalog/TELLUS_GRFO_L3_GFZ_RL06.3_LND_v04
TELLUS_GRFO_L3_GFZ_RL06.3_LND_v04·vRL06.3v04·dataset

Monthly changes in stored land water (GRACE-FO, GFZ)

GFZ TELLUS GRACE-FO Level-3 Monthly Land Water-Equivalent-Thickness Surface Mass Anomaly Release 6.3 version 04
hydrosphere NASA POCLOUD Level 3 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Monthly maps of how much water is stored on and under land has changed compared to a reference period, expressed as an equivalent thickness of water. It bundles together soil moisture, snow, surface water, and groundwater.

How it's made. Derived by the German Research Centre for Geosciences from the GRACE-FO mission's tiny month-to-month changes in Earth's gravity, with several corrections applied.

How & where you'd use it. Tracks droughts, groundwater depletion, and shifts in regional water supplies, supporting water management and climate studies.

What's measured

TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › WATER BUDGET › TERRESTRIAL WATER STORAGE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-05-22 → ongoing
  • Measured byGRACE-FO (GRACE-FO MWI, GRACE-FO LRI, GRACE-FO ACC, GRACE-FO SCA)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -89.5, 180, 89.5
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Follow rainfall, floods and surface-water extent
  • Track soil moisture and the onset of drought
  • Monitor lakes, rivers and groundwater storage
Official description

This data set is produced by the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) as part of the GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On) program and derives the terrestrial water storage anomaly given as equivalent water thickness. These monthly grids are derived from GRACE-FO time-variable gravity observations during the specified timespan, and relative to the specified time-mean reference period. This quantity represents the total terrestrial water storage anomalies from soil moisture, snow, surface water (incl. rivers, lakes, reservoirs etc.), as well as groundwater and aquifers. A glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) correction has been applied, and standard corrections for geocenter (degree-1), C20 (degree-20) and C30 (degree-30) are incorporated. Post-processing filters have been applied to reduce correlated errors. Data grids are provided in ASCII/netCDF/GeoTIFF formats. GRACE-FO was launched on 22 May 2018, and extends the original GRACE mission (2002 – 2017) and expands its legacy of scientific achievements in tracking earth surface mass changes. Version 04 (v04) of the terrestrial water storage data uses updated and consistent C20 and Geocenter corrections (i.e., Technical Notes TN-14 and TN-13), as well as an ellipsoidal correction to account for the non-spherical shape of the Earth when mapping gravity anomalies to surface mass change. Additionally, this release 06.3 is an updated version of the Level 3 products in coordination with the release of the analogous Level 2 products used to generate them. It differs from RL06.1 only in the Level-1B accelerometer transplant data that is used for the GF2 (GRACE-FO 2) satellite; see respective L-2 data descriptions. RL06.3 uses the ACX2-L1B data products. All GRACE-FO RL06.3 Level-3 fields are fully compatible with the GRACE RL06 data.

Get the data

tellus_grfo_l3_gfz_rl06.3_lnd_v04_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="TELLUS_GRFO_L3_GFZ_RL06.3_LND_v04",
    version="RL06.3v04",
    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.