JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon Ocean, Ice, and Hydrology Equivalent Water Height JPL Release 06.3 Version 04

This dataset contains gridded monthly global water storage/height anomalies relative to a time-mean, derived from GRACE and GRACE-FO and processed at JPL using the Mascon approach (RL06.3Mv04). These data are provided in a single data file in netCDF format, and can be used for analysis for ocean, ice, and hydrology phenomena. The data are provided in a single data file in netCDF format, with water storage/height anomalies in equivalent water thickness units (cm). The data are derived from solving for monthly gravity field variations on geolocated spherical cap mass concentration functions, rather than global spherical harmonic coefficients. Additionally, realistic geophysical information is introduced during the computation to intrinsically remove correlated errors. Thus, these Mascon grids do not need to be de-correlated or smoothed, like traditional spherical harmonic gravity solutions.

The complete Mascon solution consists of 4,551 independent estimates of surface mass change that have been derived using an equal-area 3-degree grid of individual mascons. Please note that this dataset does not correct for leakage errors across coastlines; it is therefore recommended only for users who want to apply their own algorithm to separate between land and ocean mass very near coastlines.

This RL06.3Mv04 is an updated version of the previous Tellus JPL Mascon RL06.1Mv03. For more information, please visit https://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/data/get-data/jpl_global_mascons/. For a detailed description on the Mascon processing, including the mathematical derivation, implementation of geophysical constraints, and validation, please see Watkins et al., 2015, doi: 10.1002/2014JB011547. This product is intended for expert use only; other users are encouraged to use the CRI-filtered Mascon dataset, which is available here: https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/TELLUS_GRAC-GRFO_MASCON_GRID_RL06.3_V4.