PODAAC-TEMSC-3MJC6

This dataset represents Version 1 of the JPL GRACE Mascon Equivalent Water Height RL06, providing global water storage anomalies relative to a time-mean of monthly mass grids as derived from GRACE. These data are provided in a single data file in netCDF format and is applicable for ocean, ice, and hydrology. This version of the data employs a Coastal Resolution Improvement (CRI) filter that reduces leakage errors across coastlines. The storage anomalies are given in equivalent water thickness units (cm). The solution provided here is derived from solving for monthly gravity field variations in terms of spherical cap mass concentration functions, rather than spherical harmonic coefficients. Additionally, realistic geophysical information is introduced during the solution inversion to intrinsically remove correlated error. Thus, these Mascon solutions 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 estimated using an equal-area 3-degree grid of individual mascon. A subset of these individual mascon span coastlines, and contain mixed land and ocean mass change signals. In a post-processing step, the CRI filter is applied to the complete Mascon solution to separate land and ocean mass from individual mascon that span coastlines. The land mask used to perform this separation is provided in the same directory as this dataset. Since the individual mascon act as an inherent smoother on the gravity field, a set of optional gain factors (for continental hydrology applications) that can be applied to the solution to study mass change signals at sub-mascon resolution is also provided within the same data directory as the Mascon data. Please refer to the 'Data Access' tab at the top of this page to gain direct access to the Mascon data. For more information, please visit http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/data/get-data/jpl_global_mascons/. For a detailed description on the Mascon solution, including the mathematical derivation, implementation of geophysical constraints, and solution validation, please see Watkins et al., 2015, doi: 10.1002/2014JB011547.

Data and Resources

Field Value
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • ckan
  • geo
  • geoss
  • national
  • north-america
  • united-states
isopen False
license_id notspecified
license_title License not specified
maintainer Wen-Hao Li
maintainer_email wen-hao.li@jpl.nasa.gov
metadata_created 2025-12-01T02:03:42.561566
metadata_modified 2025-12-01T02:03:42.561571
notes This dataset represents Version 1 of the JPL GRACE Mascon Equivalent Water Height RL06, providing global water storage anomalies relative to a time-mean of monthly mass grids as derived from GRACE. These data are provided in a single data file in netCDF format and is applicable for ocean, ice, and hydrology. This version of the data employs a Coastal Resolution Improvement (CRI) filter that reduces leakage errors across coastlines. The storage anomalies are given in equivalent water thickness units (cm). The solution provided here is derived from solving for monthly gravity field variations in terms of spherical cap mass concentration functions, rather than spherical harmonic coefficients. Additionally, realistic geophysical information is introduced during the solution inversion to intrinsically remove correlated error. Thus, these Mascon solutions 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 estimated using an equal-area 3-degree grid of individual mascon. A subset of these individual mascon span coastlines, and contain mixed land and ocean mass change signals. In a post-processing step, the CRI filter is applied to the complete Mascon solution to separate land and ocean mass from individual mascon that span coastlines. The land mask used to perform this separation is provided in the same directory as this dataset. Since the individual mascon act as an inherent smoother on the gravity field, a set of optional gain factors (for continental hydrology applications) that can be applied to the solution to study mass change signals at sub-mascon resolution is also provided within the same data directory as the Mascon data. Please refer to the 'Data Access' tab at the top of this page to gain direct access to the Mascon data. For more information, please visit http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/data/get-data/jpl_global_mascons/. For a detailed description on the Mascon solution, including the mathematical derivation, implementation of geophysical constraints, and solution validation, please see Watkins et al., 2015, doi: 10.1002/2014JB011547.
num_resources 17
num_tags 8
title PODAAC-TEMSC-3MJC6