Photo Credit: California DWR

NASA’s Applied Sciences Program, along with the GRACE missions project teams, are implementing a strategy that promotes applications research and engages a broad community of users in the uses of GRACE data. This activity is in response to recommendations of the National Research Council Decadal Survey report (Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond, Space Studies Board, National Academies Press, 2007). The goals of the GRACE applications program include:

  • Promote the use of GRACE products to a community of end-users and decision makers that understand GRACE and related mission capabilities and are interested in using the missions’ data products in their application
  • Facilitate feedback between GRACE user communities and the GRACE project
  • Provide information on collaborations with different types of users and communities including those of Earth and ocean research, ice and drought studies, agricultural impacts, operational applications, and others
  • Design communication strategies to target and support requirements of the user community.

The GRACE Mission Applications Plan is available at the link below;

GRACE Missions Applications Plan


GRACE Applications Areas​​


GRACE Applications Presentations

Bolten, J., et al, Looking to the Future: Forming a Comprehensive GRACE FO Applications Strategy, Presented at the 2012 GRACE Science Team Meeting, 17-19 September 2012, Potsdam, Germany. See abstract.


News -- Societal Uses of GRACE Data

Satellites Show 'Total' California Water Storage at Near-Decade Low
February 2014

Where catastrophic droughts and floods are bound to happen in the U.S.
November 2013

Using Satellites to Understand Drought
November 2013

Satellites Show Shrinking Aquifers in Drought-Stricken Areas
June 2013


Applications-Relevant Publications

Estimating the human contribution to groundwater depletion in the Middle East, from GRACE data, land surface models, and well observations
March 2014 -- Accepted

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