NASA And DLR Sign Agreement To Continue GRACE Mission Through 2015
WASHINGTON -- NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and German
Aerospace Center (DLR) Executive Board Chairman Johann-Dietrich
Worner signed an agreement Thursday during a bilateral meeting in
Berlin to extend the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE)
mission through the end of its on-orbit life, which is expected in
2015.
Launched in March 2002, GRACE tracks changes in Earth's gravity field
by noting minute changes in gravitational pull from local changes in
Earth's mass. It does this by measuring changes in the distance
between its two identical spacecraft to one-hundredth the width of a
human hair. These spacecraft are in the same orbit approximately 137
miles apart.
"The extension of this successful cooperative mission demonstrates the
strength of the NASA-DLR partnership and our commitment to continue
working together in this very important area of Earth science,"
Garver said.
NASA and DLR signed the original agreement in 1998. The two agencies
jointly developed the GRACE mission and have cooperated on its
operational phase since its launch. For the twin satellite mission,
NASA provided the instruments and selected satellite components, plus
data validation and archiving. DLR provided the primary satellite
components, launch services and operations.
GRACE maps gravity-field variations from month to month, recording
changes caused by the seasons, weather patterns and short-term
climate change.
"The extension of this successful mission will deliver more valuable
data to help us understand how Earth's mass and gravity varies over
time," Worner said. "This is an important component necessary to
study changes in global sea level, polar ice mass, deep ocean
currents, and depletion and recharge of continental aquifers. We
appreciate the strong cooperation with our partner NASA."
GRACE's monthly maps are up to 100 times more accurate than existing
maps, substantially improving the accuracy of techniques used by
oceanographers, hydrologists, glaciologists, geologists and climate
scientists.
Data from the GRACE mission have been used to measure the amount of
water lost in recent years from the aquifers for California's primary
agricultural region in the state's Central Valley. An international
study recently used GRACE data to show that ice losses from
Greenland's ice sheet now are rapidly spreading up its northwest
coast.
For more information about the GRACE mission, visit:
http://science.nasa.gov/
Source: NASA
