On March 2, 2017 the Helmholtz-Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and SwissCore invited various experts from the European Commisssion and ESA to the Helmholtz Brussels Office to a Teatime Event “GRACE-FO – the launch of a new chapter in our knowledge of the Earth’s gravity field”.
As the invitees strongly believe that mass transport data and applications are highly relevant for the development of research and innovation programmes in the EU, the U.S.A., and worldwide, the intention of this meeting was to provide information on the technological background and scientific success and application potential of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission and to make aware on its Follow-on mission (GRACE-FO), which is due for launch early in 2018. To illustrate the potential advantages of such a mission two special flyers were commissioned for the event which can be seen/downloaded below, along with some pictures of the event. The first shows Dr. Carmen Boening (NASA) giving her presentation, the second shows Prof. Adrian Jäggi (University of Bern) giving his closing remarks.
The meeting was opened with a welcome and short introduction to satellite gravimetry by Prof. Dr. Frank Flechtner (Head of GFZ’s Section 1.2 “Global Geomonitoring and Gravity Field”, Co-PI of the original GRACE mission and responsible for the development of the German GRACE-FO mission elements).
Prof. Dr. Annette Eicker (HafenCity University Hamburg) talked about “Spaceborne approaches to present and future gravity measurements”. She highlighted hydrological applications of mass transport data which are related to climate change or direct human influence such as over-exploitation of groundwater resources, droughts and floods and also showed that GRACE data is useful for early warning (as demonstrated in the EGSIEM project) or seasonal streamflow forecast. GRACE data is the[AJ1] a missing link in the Copernicus Service Evolution such as atmosphere monitoring, marine environment monitoring, emergency management, land monitoring or climate change.
Dr. Carmen Boening (GRACE Project Scientist of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology Manager) gave a presentation on “our changing view on Earth: New perspectives and chances through GRACE, GRACE-FO, and beyond” introducing the US Drought Monitor, where GRACE data are in the meantime an indispensable input. She added examples of long-term trend changes in the Earth system, such as ice melting in Greenland and Antarctica and their contribution to sea level rise. She also showed that GRACE data proved that sea-level change and terrestrial water storage changes are intimately linked with each other. Boening also noted that further strengthening climate change related conclusions requires an extension of the GRACE/GRACE-FO time series to a 30+ years’ time series, as well as increased spatial and temporal resolution. The latter could be achieved by 2 pairs of satellites which may be realized by ESA/NASA as a future Sentinel mission.
Adrian Jäggi (Astronomical Institute of the University Bern, EGSIEM Project Lead) wrapped-up the discussion and gave his summary and conclusions.
