GRACE-FO: mission status, science performance and outlook
Abstract
Since 2018, the GRACE Follow-On satellite mission, a partnership between NASA (US) and GFZ (Germany), is continuing the unique essential climate data record of mass change in the Earth system initiated in 2002 by the GRACE mission (2002-2017). The combined GRACE & GRACE-FO data records now span over 22 years and provide foundational observations of monthly to decadal global mass changes and transports in the Earth system derived from temporal variations in the Earth’s gravity field. These observations have become indispensable for climate-related studies that enable process understanding of the evolving global water cycle, including ocean dynamics, polar ice mass changes, and near-surface and global ground water changes.We will present recent GRACE/GRACE-FO science and applications highlights, status of the data processing, calibration approaches, performance of last year’s science data, and discuss the GRACE-FO mission operations plan to collect and provide high-quality science data, aiming for overlap with the upcoming NASA/DLR GRACE-Continuity mission, targeted to launch in late 2028.
