GRACE Earh Gravity Field Level 2 Collection

The GRACE level-2 products are the main outputs from the GRACE and GRACE-FO missions. They consist of the time average (10-day, monthly) solutions of the Earth gravity field in spherical harmonics. GRACE is a joint project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) and the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt ( DLR ). The mission has been proposed in 1996 jointly by the University of Texas at Austin, Center for Space Research ( UTCSR ), the German Research Centre for Geosciences ( GFZ ) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) in Pasadena. GRACE was selected in 1997 as second mission in NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder ( ESSP ) program. As an innovation, the Principal Investigator Prof. Byron Tapley (UTCSR) and his team are ultimately responsible for developing the flight mission hardware from selection to a launch-ready condition, for accomplishing the scientific objectives and delivering the proposed measurements to the broader Earth science community and general public as expediently as possible. Co-Principal Investigator of the mission is Dr. Frank Flechtner (GFZ). Project management and systems engineering activities are carried out by JPL. GRACE-FO is a joint project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) and the GeoForschungsZentrum ( GFZ ) Potsdam. GRACE-FO, launched May 22, 2018, is a successor to the original GRACE mission. The Principal Investigator at NASA JPL is Felix landerer. Co-Principal Investigator of the mission is Dr. Frank Flechtner (GFZ). Project management and systems engineering activities are carried out by JPL.