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Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment

GRACE Spacecraft

An artist's concept of the GRACE spacecraft. Image credit: NASA
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New Look at Gravity Data Sheds Light on Ocean and Climate

This map shows changes in ocean bottom pressure measured by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment.
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Global Gravity: Asia and Australia

This visualization of a gravity model was created with data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and shows variations in the gravity field across the Asia and Australia.
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Global Gravity: North and South America

This visualization of a gravity model was created with data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and shows variations in the gravity field across the Americas.
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Measuring Water Storage in the Amazon

This image is from data taken by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment showing the Amazon basin in South America. The amount of water stored in the Amazon basin varies from month to month. Animations are available at the Photojournal.
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Global Gravity: Africa and Europe

This visualization of a gravity model was created with data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and shows variations in the gravity field across Africa and Europe.
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GRACE Global Gravity Animation

This visualization of a gravity model was created with data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and shows variations in Earth’s gravity field.
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Greenland Gains Some, Loses More

NASA's GRACE mission has become a key source of knowledge about global ice mass changes. Studies of Greenland using GRACE and other data indicate that between 2000 and 2008 the Greenland ice sheet lost as much as 1,500 gigatons of mass.
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Mission Summary

An award-winning mission that's changed the way we study Earth's gravitational forces, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, mission flies twin spacecraft in tandem around Earth to study key changes in the planet's waters and ice sheets.

In 2011, the gravity measurement technique pioneered by GRACE, which works by measuring changes in the push and pull between the twin spacecraft as they orbit Earth, was put to use on NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft embarking on an ambitious mission to study the gravitational forces of Earth's moon.

Scientific Instrument(s)

- Microwave K-band ranging instrument
- Accelerometers
- Global Positioning System receivers

Fast Facts

Acronym:	GRACE

Type:	Orbiter

Status:	Current

Launch Date:	March 17, 2002 12:21 p.m. MSK (09:21 UTC)

Launch Location:	Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia

Target:	Earth

Current Location:	› Click to view Orbit type: Polar orbit Altitude: 500 kilometers (311 miles)

Resources

› Mission Website

› Press Kit

› Science Writers Guide

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