GRACE Mission

Objectives and Applications

5-year nominal mission life, currently in extended operations. Extremely high precision gravity measurements for use in construction of gravity field models. GRACE consists of two satellites (A, B) serving one mission.

Mission Summary

Full Name
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
Mission Status
Mission complete
Mission Agencies
NASA, NASA, DLR, DLR, ESA, ESA, GFZ, GFZ
Launch Date
17 Mar 2002
Mission Links
EOL Date
27 Oct 2017
EO Portal Info

Orbit Details

Orbit Type
Inclined, non-sun-synchronous
Orbit Period
91 minutes
Orbit Sense
N/A
Orbit Inclination
89 deg
Orbit Altitude
327 km
Orbit Longitude
Orbit LST
Repeat Cycle
NORAD Catalog #s
International Designators

Mission Instruments

GRACE instrument - GRACE instrument

Mission Measurements

CategoryParameterInstrument(s)
Gravity and Magnetic FieldsGravity, Magnetic and Geodynamic measurements GRACE instrument
LandSoil moisture GRACE instrument
OceanOcean topography/currents GRACE instrument

Featured Datasets

GRACE Level 1B/2 Data Products
Jan-2017
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission was a joint project between NASA and DLR. The primary science objective of GRACE was to measure the Earth’s gravity field and time variability with unprecedented accuracy. The secondary science objective was to obtain approximately 150 very precise globally distributed vertical temperature and humidity profiles of the atmosphere per day using the GPS radio occultation technique. ESA offers access to worldwide GRACE data via the TPM scheme. - Read more

OpenSearch Datasets

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