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GRACE-FO Documentation

Access general documentation and technical notes for GRACE-FO.

Documents archived by NASA’s Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) provide technical information about the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) follow-on experiment (GRACE-FO). These include handbooks, processing documents, release notes, fact sheets, and technical notes.

General

Document TitleAuthorDescription
GRACE-FO SDS NewsletterF. Landerer, et al.Monthly newsletter provided by the GRACE-FO Science Data System (SDS) describing science relevant events on the GRACE-FO space crafts and statistics on L0, L1 and L2 product generation.
GRACE-GRACE-FO Months RL06.cvsNASA/JPLActual monthly-range of the valid data used to compute the GRACE and GRACE-FO Level-2 and -3 monthly products. 
NASA Approved YAML encoding technical noteNASA/JPLDocument that describes the "YAML Ain't Markup Language" (YAML) encoding as the standard format for NASA GRACE/GRACE-FO mission ASCII data.

Level 1

Document TitleAuthorDateDescription
AOD1B Product Description Document GRACEH. Dobslaw, et al.October 19, 2017Describes the atmospheric and ocean de-aliasing product (AOD1B) and the barotropic ocean model output (OCN1B).
GRACE-FO Level 1 Data Product User HandbookHui Ying Wen, et al.Sept. 11, 2019Provides a comprehensive description of the content and format of the GRACE-FO SDS Level-1A and 1B data products.
Release Notes for GRACE-FO L1B productsHui Ying WenSept. 23, 2019Gives additional information on GRACE-FO L1B products (not contained in other L1 documents).
GRACE-FO Accelerometer Data ProductsChristopher M. M.May 20, 2019Provides the accelerometer data, which is calibrated to enable more optimal gravity field recovery.

Level 2

Document TitleAuthorDateDescription
AOD1B Product Description Document GRACEH. Dobslaw, et al.October 19, 2017Describes the atmospheric and ocean de-aliasing product (AOD1B) and the barotropic ocean model output (OCN1B).
GRACE-FO Level 1 Data Product User HandbookHui Ying Wen, et al.Sept. 11, 2019Provides a comprehensive description of the content and format of the GRACE-FO SDS Level-1A and 1B data products.
Release Notes for GRACE-FO L1B productsHui Ying WenSept. 23, 2019Gives additional information on GRACE-FO L1B products (not contained in other L1 documents).
GRACE-FO Accelerometer Data ProductsChristopher M. M. May 20, 2019Provides the accelerometer data, which is calibrated to enable more optimal gravity field recovery. 

Level 3

Documentation TitleAuthorDateDescription
GRACE-FO Level-3 Data Product User Handbook Savannah S. Cooley​ and Felix W. LandererJuly 10, 2020This Handbook is designed to guide both experienced and beginner users in understanding and using Level-3 GRACE and GRACE-FO data products.The three main objectives of this document are to, 1) provide an overview of the GRACE-FO mission including the instrument design, science data processing, and calibration and validation procedures, 2) provide a description of the available Level-3 GRACE-FO data products and featured science and applications of Level-3 GRACE and GRACE-FO data, and 3) provide a set of step by step, reproducible use cases intended to serve as a reference for users who are interested in GRACE-FO Level-3 data products.  
Release Notes for JPL GRACE-FO L3 MASCON RL06.3 productsDavid WieseSeptember 10, 2024Information on Release 06.3 of the Level-3 MASCON data sets.

Technical Notes

Document TitleAuthorDateDescription
GRACE-FO Technical Note #01: Sequence of Events (SOE) File Updated DailyProvides a record of changes of the state of a specific satellite sensor or satellite event, which may alter the processing parameters used for the L1B processing. This file is updated on a daily basis.
GRACE-FO Technical Note #01a: SPACECRAFT_EVENTS (SCE) FileNASA/JPL This file contains GRACE-FO SPACECRAFT_EVENTS, manually written by Level-1 Science Data System operators at NASA JPL, and updated with each weekly incremental data release. The contents of this file augment the machine-readable Sequence of Events file
GRACE-FO Technical Note #01b: KBR_GPS_StatsNASA/JPL KBR_GPS Status Report
GRACE-FO Technical Note #11E:  Monthly estimates of C20 and C30 from 6/7 satellites based on GRACE RL06 models (TXT, 31.77 KB)M. Cheng and J. RiesJanuary 25, 2023Use these estimates to replace the C20 values (and C30 values starting March 2012) from the GSM files of the GRACE(-FO) RL06.X products only. These estimates are not intended to be used with the GRACE RL05 or earlier products.
GRACE-FO Technical Note #12: Convert Global Mean OBP -> Global Mean Ocean Mass July, 2020This calculation uses AOD1B 'GAC' fields, and integrates over the ocean-area only; due to the definition of 'GAC' (see AOD1B handbook for further details), the resulting mean value effectively represents 'mean atmospheric mass over the global ocean' for each time step.
GRACE-FO Technical Note #13a: degree-1 (geocenter) gravity coefficients from CSR RL06.3  This file contains monthly estimates of degree-1 gravity coefficients for the GRACE/GRACE-FO Release-06.3 data by CSR, based on ocean and atmospheric models and GRACE/GRACE-FO coefficients for degrees 2 and higher. 
GRACE-FO Technical Note #13b: degree-1 (geocenter) gravity coefficients from GFZ RL06.3  This file contains monthly estimates of degree-1 gravity coefficients for the GRACE/GRACE-FO Release-06.3 data by GFZ, based on ocean and atmospheric models and GRACE/GRACE-FO coefficients for degrees 2 and higher. 
GRACE-FO Technical Note #13c: degree-1 (geocenter) gravity coefficients from JPL RL06.3  This file contains monthly estimates of degree-1 gravity coefficients for the GRACE/GRACE-FO Release-06.3 data by JPL, based on ocean and atmospheric models and GRACE/GRACE-FO coefficients for degrees 2 and higher.
GRACE-FO Technical Note #14: NASA GSFC SLR C20 and C30 solutionsB.D. Loomis and K.E. Rachlin This file contains SLR-derived C20 and C30 values for replacing GRACE/GRACE-FO GSM  Values prior to MJD 56006 use 5 satellites: LAGEOS-1/2, Stella, Starlette, AJISAI Values beginning on MJD 56006 use 7 atellites: LARES and Larets added C30 values are not provided prior to MJD 56006 Estimated parameters for both 5 and 7-satellite configurations: 5x5+C61,S61
Missing and and Unused Days Table  CSV table of missing days for GRACE and GRACE-FO processing. Includes monthly information on missing days as well as unused days by each of the processing centers.