QuikSCAT Arctic Sea Ice Age Classification v1.0 (2002-2009)

Animation of the QuikSCAT scatterometer-derived Arctic sea ice classification v1.0 from 20 June 2002 through 23 November 2009. The dataset provides nominal 4.45 km (pixel resolution at reference latitude 70 N) gridded fields that classify First-Year (FY) and Multi-Year (MY) sea ice using SeaWinds on QuikSCAT scatterometer observations on a daily basis. First-Year sea ice is defined as ice that has formed only during that specific year. Multi-Year sea ice is defined as the winter-time ice that survives the summer melt season.

MEaSUREs Pre-SWOT Hydrology Version 2 Datasets Release

2020-01-08

The PO.DAAC is pleased to announce the public release of the MEaSUREs Pre-SWOT Hydrology River Heights, Lake and Reservoir Heights, Area and Storage Version 2 datasets. More information regarding the data is available from PO.DAAC’s mission page. Several enhancements over the previous release are implemented, including daily river heights and improved quality for long term trend analysis.

MEaSUREs Pre-SWOT Hydrology Datasets Release

January 8, 2020

The MEaSUREs Pre-Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) Hydrology datasets provide time series of river and lake/reservoir heights, lake/reservoir storage, and grids of lake/reservoir surface area. These 5 datasets are derived from ERS-1 & 2, TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, 2 & 3 and MODIS on Aqua and Terra measurements, and are provided as time series for virtual gauges or grids of surface area extent. The intent is to provide satellite data for hydrological measurements that are typically measured from in situ gauges. These data are available every 10 days from October 1992 to November 2018, with the exception of the daily river height dataset.

The MEaSUREs Pre-SWOT Hydrology datasets are described and discoverable via the PO.DAAC data portal. More information regarding the data is available from PO.DAAC's mission page.

Location of the global lake and reservoir targets (blue bubbles, by average lake/reservoir size).

JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon RL06M version 02 Datasets Released

December 6, 2019

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (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 month-to-month variations in the Earth's gravity field and surface mass changes. It will continue the legacy data record of the first Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission (2002-2017).

Conceptually very similar to the original GRACE mission, GRACE-FO consists of two identical satellites flying in formation around Earth at an initial altitude of approximately 490 kilometers and a nominal separation distance of 220+/-50 kilometers. Instruments on board the satellites precisely measure changes in the distance between them due to orbital perturbations caused by geographical and temporal variations in Earth's gravity field.

GRACE-FO will expand GRACE's legacy of scientific achievements. These include tracking mass changes in Earth's polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers (which impacts global sea level); estimating total water storage on land (from groundwater changes in deep aquifers to changes in soil moisture and surface water); inferring changes in deep ocean currents, a driving force in climate; and even measuring changes within the solid Earth itself, such as postglacial rebound and the impact of major earthquakes.

The JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Level-3 Mascon Ocean, Ice, and Hydrology Equivalent Water Height Release-06 (RL06) version 02 datasets are derived from solving for monthly gravity field variations in terms of geolocated spherical cap mass concentration functions, rather than global spherical harmonic coefficients. Additionally, realistic geophysical information is introduced during the solution inversion to intrinsically remove correlated error. Thus, these Mascon grids do not need to be destriped or smoothed, like traditional spherical harmonic gravity solutions. The complete Mascon solution consists of 4,551 relatively independent estimates of surface mass change that have been derived using an equal-area 3-degree grid of individual mascons. The final solutions are then mapped into 0.5-degree regular lat-lon grid.

GRACE-FO mission datasets are archived and distributed by the PO.DAAC. The JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Level-3 Mascon Rl06 v02 datasets are described and discoverable via the PO.DAAC dataset information pages (https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/TELLUS_GRAC-GRFO_MASCON_CRI_GRID_RL06_V2 and https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/TELLUS_GRAC-GRFO_MASCON_GRID_RL06_V2).  The dataset information pages also provide access to the technical documentation, JPL GRACE/GRACE-FO MASCON Release Notes, GRACE Mason references, and guidance on how to cite the data.

Animation of the JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon L3 Monthly Global Mass Anomaly RL06Mv2 CRI from 2002 to 2019.

JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon L3 Monthly Global Mass Anomaly RL06Mv2 CRI (2002-2019)

Animation of the JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon L3 Monthly Global Mass Anomaly RL06Mv2 CRI from 2002 to 2019. The dataset was derived from GRACE and GRACE-FO and processed at JPL using the Mascon approach (Version2/RL06). The dataset can be accessed from the PO.DAAC Portal at https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/TELLUS_GRAC-GRFO_MASCON_GRID_RL06_V2 (DOI:10.5067/TEMSC-3MJ62).

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