GRACE-FO Mission

News:NASA has released new global maps mapping groundwater, soil wetness using GRACE-FO mission satellites.

Facts:

  • The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission was launched in 2018.It is a successor to the original GRACE mission which orbited Earth from 2002-2017.
  • Bodies involved:It is a partnership project between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences(GFZ).
  • Objective:To map Earth’s gravity field every 30 days in order to monitor changes in underground water storage, the amount of water in lakes, soil moisture, ice sheets, glaciers and sea level.