GRACE Satellite(s) -- Measuring Gravity & Climate

There hasn't been a thread devoted to these "twin satellites" that were launched in 2002, so, thought to start one!

Here's a excerpt of GRACE's (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) latest findings:

May 2007 - US and Canadian scientists have used the gravity measurements from GRACE to determine that the ancient ice sheets over Canada consisted of two major ice domes rather than a single massive dome. Their analysis also indicates that post-glacial rebound is not the only source of the observed gravity changes; mantle convection also appears to play an important role.

The satellites have also been finding out about water shortages, changes in ice levels and their missions have been extended until Sept. 2009.... should you take a look at the photos of these satellites, which orbit 300 miles above Earth, they can be easily mistaken as UFOs, due to their odd shape!

Lastly, the Cosmos Magazine article has a photo depiction of what Earth looks like to these satellites:

On a GRACE satellite map, the Earth looks like a warty ball, with red bumps and deep blue holes highlighting fluctuations in the planet's gravity.

www.cosmosmagazine.com...
podaac.jpl.nasa.gov...
www.csr.utexas.edu...
www.csr.utexas.edu...
www.gfz-potsdam.de...

[edit on 15-11-2007 by anhinga]

Very good. I remember hearing of these, but then they went off the radar screen, as they aren't mentioned much. I'm glad you brought these up again.

Another star and a thumbs up for detective work in locating these.

reply to post by NGC2736


Thanks again NGC! I think I'll post photos of the gravity depiction of the Earth here, these satellites are collecting some interesting data and like I posted, they'll go for another 2 years; GRACE has been compiling data on black hole theories too:

Researchers See Reversal in Arctic Patterns
blog.wired.com...





[edit on 16-11-2007 by anhinga]