GRACE исполнилось 10 лет

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At 10, GRACE Continues Defying, and Defining, Gravity

Just as the lead characters in the popular Broadway musical "Wicked" sing about defying gravity, the low-Earth orbiting twin spacecraft of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) continue to defy gravity 10 years after launch, while also continuing to help define it. Along the way, they've also produced an amazing array of breakthrough science that is giving us a new understanding of changes in Earth's natural systems.

Launched from Northern Russia on March 17, 2002, on what was designed to be a three- to five-year mission, GRACE continues its task of making detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field. It does so by noting minute changes in gravitational pull caused by local changes in Earth's mass. Masses of ice, air, water and solid Earth can be moved by weather patterns, seasonal change, climate change and even tectonic events such as large earthquakes. To track these changes, GRACE uses GPS and a microwave ranging system to measure micron-scale variations in the 220-kilometer (137-mile) separation between the two spacecraft, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

These measurements are used to produce monthly gravity maps that are more than 100 times more precise than previous models, providing the resolution necessary to characterize how Earth's gravity field varies over time and space, and over land and sea. The data have substantially improved the accuracy of techniques used by oceanographers, hydrologists, glaciologists, geologists and climate scientists.

"GRACE essentially demonstrated a new form of remote sensing for climate research that has turned out even better than we hoped," said GRACE Project Scientist Michael Watkins of JPL "We realized early on in the design of GRACE that we could measure the gravity field well enough to observe the critical indicators of climate change - sea level rise and polar ice melt."

GRACE is a joint mission with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ), in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin. During its first decade of operations, the mission has made remarkable contributions to many scientific disciplines, expanding our knowledge of ice loss from the polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers, groundwater storage on land, sea level variations and large-scale ocean circulation, to name but a few.

GRACE also pioneered the study technique now being used by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, which recently began mapping the gravitational field of the moon to learn about its internal structure and composition in unprecedented detail. GRAIL data will also provide a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed and evolved.

In June 2010, NASA and DLR signed an agreement to continue GRACE through 2015-a full 10 years past the planned mission duration. Recognizing the importance of extending this long-term dataset, NASA has approved the development and launch of the GRACE Follow-On mission, also developed jointly with Germany, and planned for launch in 2017.

For more information on GRACE, visit: http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/ , http://www.nasa.gov/grace , and http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/ . For more information on GRAIL, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/grail .

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-077

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From Russia With Grace
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature=10

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http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/news/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=49

9 Years of GRACE

2002 - From Russia with love



Members of the GRACE team prepare for launch on site in Plesetsk, Russia. From left; JPLers Phil Morton, Garth Franklin, Jennifer Rocca, and Charlie Dunn, along with colleagues from Astrium.

2002 - GRACE launches



Both GRACE satellites were launched simultaneously with a ROCKOT launch vehicle from Plesetsk/Russia on March 17, 2002. The GRACE orbit is almost polar (i=89.0°) and near circular (e<0.005) and started with an initial altitude of 500 km. The anticipated lifetime for scientific operations was 5 years. The mission is still producing highly precise measurements of Earth's gravity field over 9 years later. Click here (QuickTime, 5.62 MB) to view the GRACE launch and a simulation of the release of the satellites from the fairing.

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NASA GRACE Data Hit Big Apple on World Water Day
March 22, 2012

To highlight declines in the world's groundwater supplies, a new visualization of Earth's groundwater reserves, created in part with space data from the joint NASA/German Aerospace Center (DLR) Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, debuted on New York's Times Square on March 22, International World Water Day.

The 30-second animation, titled "Visualizing Seasonal and Long-term Changes in Groundwater Levels," will be on display several times each hour through April 22 on Times Square's massive Thomson Reuters and NASDAQ digital signboards. Viewers of the interactive animation are invited to use their mobile devices to submit their city and add a graph to the sign. The animation can be viewed at: http://vimeo.com/user10042778

Netherlands designer Richard Vijgen developed the animation using GRACE data analyzed by professor Jay Famiglietti, director of the UC Center for Hydrologic Modeling at the University of California, Irvine; and from United States Geological Survey data supplied by Leonard Konikow. Vijgen was the winning entry in an international design visualization competition sponsored by the organization HeadsUP!, in collaboration with Visualizing.org. Founded by digital media artist Peggy Weil, HeadsUp! challenges designers to visualize critical global issues and create a shared sign for the public square.

Groundwater is a critical, but often overlooked, natural resource. According to a U.N. report, more than 1.5 billion people around the world depend on groundwater for their drinking water. It comes from the natural percolation of precipitation and other surface waters down through Earth's soil and rock, accumulating in cavities and layers of porous rock, gravel, sand or clay. Groundwater levels respond slowly to changes in weather and can take months or years to replenish once pumped for irrigation or other uses.

Famiglietti's analyses show that groundwater is being depleted at alarming rates in many of the world's major aquifers. "The GRACE data set is exciting, because it gives us the first global pictures of Earth's changing freshwater," he said.

The twin GRACE satellites, which celebrated their 10th year in orbit this week, measure minute changes in Earth's gravity field by measuring micron-scale variations in the separation between the two spacecraft, flying in formation 137 miles (220 kilometers) apart in low Earth orbit. These variations in gravitational pull are caused by local changes in Earth's mass. Masses of water, ice, air and solid Earth can be moved by weather patterns, seasonal change, climate change and even tectonic events such as large earthquakes. GRACE was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The depletion of groundwater from large aquifers due to drought and human activities affects gravity enough to provide a signal that GRACE can measure, in concert with other remote sensing data. After accounting for other mass variations, such changes in gravity can be translated into an equivalent change in water. GRACE has been used to detect major depletion of groundwater in northern India, California's Central Valley and elsewhere around the globe.

Groundwater levels are monitored by local sensors as well as from space with GRACE, but the data are formatted for expert hydrologists, rather than concerned citizens. Underground and out of sight, the public lacks a clear indicator of changing groundwater levels. By using the GRACE satellite data, HeadsUP! offered designers the chance to visualize the water under the surface of Earth, as "seen" from space.

For more on the HeadsUP! project, visit: http://www.pitchengine.com/headsup2012/data-visualization-comes-to-times-square-transforms-19k-sq-ft-ad-space-wsatellite-data--design-reaching-millions

World Water Day is an annual event created by the United Nations in 1992 to focus attention on the importance of freshwater and to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. For more information, visit: http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/ .

GRACE is a joint NASA mission with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ), in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin. For more on GRACE, visit: http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/ , http://www.nasa.gov/grace , and http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

For more on NASA's work to improve global water security, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/world_water_day_2012.html .

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-086

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NASA Satellites Find Freshwater Losses in Middle East



   February 12, 2013

PASADENA, Calif. - A new study using data fr om a pair of gravity-measuring NASA satellites finds that large parts of the arid Middle East region lost freshwater reserves rapidly during the past decade.

Scientists at the University of California, Irvine; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., found during a seven-year period beginning in 2003 that parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran along the Tigris and Euphrates river basins lost 117 million acre feet (144 cubic kilometers) of total stored freshwater. That is almost the amount of water in the Dead Sea. The researchers attribute about 60 percent of the loss to pumping of groundwater from underground reservoirs.

The findings, to be published Friday, Feb. 15, in the journal Water Resources Research, are the result of one of the first comprehensive hydrological assessments of the entire Tigris-Euphrates-Western Iran region. Because obtaining ground-based data in the area is difficult, satellite data, such as those from NASA's twin Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, are essential. GRACE is providing a global picture of water storage trends and is invaluable when hydrologic observations are not routinely collected or shared beyond political boundaries.

"GRACE data show an alarming rate of decrease in total water storage in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins, which currently have the second fastest rate of groundwater storage loss on Earth, after India," said Jay Famiglietti, principle investigator of the study and a hydrologist and professor at UC Irvine. "The rate was especially striking after the 2007 drought. Meanwhile, demand for freshwater continues to rise, and the region does not coordinate its water management because of different interpretations of international laws."

Famiglietti said GRACE is like having a giant scale in the sky. Within a given region, rising or falling water reserves alter Earth's mass, influencing how strong the local gravitational attraction is. By periodically measuring gravity regionally, GRACE tells us how much each region's water storage changes over time.

"GRACE really is the only way we can estimate groundwater storage changes from space right now," Famiglietti said.

The team calculated about one-fifth of the observed water losses resulted from soil drying up and snowpack shrinking, partly in response to the 2007 drought. Loss of surface water from lakes and reservoirs accounted for about another fifth of the losses. The majority of the water lost -- approximately 73 million acre feet (90 cubic kilometers) -- was due to reductions in groundwater.

"That's enough water to meet the needs of tens of millions to more than a hundred million people in the region each year, depending on regional water use standards and availability," said Famiglietti.

Famiglietti said when a drought reduces an available surface water supply, irrigators and other water users turn to groundwater supplies. For example, the Iraqi government drilled about 1,000 wells in response to the 2007 drought, a number that does not include the numerous private wells landowners also very likely drilled.

"Water management is a complex issue in the Middle East -- an area that already is dealing with lim ited water resources and competing stakeholders," said Kate Voss, lead author of the study and a water policy fellow with the University of California's Center for Hydrological Modeling in Irvine, which Famiglietti directs.

"The Middle East just does not have that much water to begin with, and it's a part of the world that will be experiencing less rainfall with climate change," said Famiglietti. "Those dry areas are getting dryer. The Middle East and the world's other arid regions need to manage available water resources as best they can."

Study co-author Matt Rodell of Goddard added it is important to remember groundwater is being extracted unsustainably in parts of the United States, as well.

"Groundwater is like your savings account," Rodell said. "It's okay to draw it down when you need it, but if it's not replenished, eventually it will be gone."

GRACE is a joint mission with the German Aerospace Center and the German Research Center for Geosciences, in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin. For more about GRACE, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/grace and http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace . The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-054

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Вероятно в качестве ответной любезности США с Ванденберга запустит кластер советских спутников.

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Зонды GRACE увидели "высыхание" Ближнего Востока

МОСКВА, 13 фев — РИА Новости. Наблюдения космических зондов GRACE показывают, что запасы пресной воды в районе бассейнов Тигра и Евфрата в прошлом десятилетии сократились на 144 кубических километра, говорится в сообщении Лаборатории реактивного движения (JPL) НАСА.
Специалисты Калифорнийского университета в Ирвайне, Национального центра атмосферных исследований в штате Колорадо и НАСА использовали данные наблюдений двух зондов, запущенных в 2002 году. Главной задачей аппаратов было составление точной гравитационной карты Земли, но с их помощью ученые могут также оценивать изменения массы ледового покрова и объема водных резервов в конкретном регионе.
Данные наблюдений GRACE показали, что в 2003-2010 годах объем запасов пресной воды на территории бассейнов Тигра и Евфрата, захватывающей районы Турции, Сирии, Ирака и Ирана, уменьшился на 144 кубических километра, что почти равно объему Мертвого моря. При этом около 60% всех потерь связаны с выкачиванием воды из подземных резервуаров и источников, еще около 20% — с высыханием почв и таянием снежного покрова. Статья ученых будет опубликована в журнале Water Resources Research.
"Данные зондов GRACE указывают на тревожные темпы потерь водных ресурсов в бассейнах Тигра и Евфрата — регионе, который по скорости сокращения запасов подземных вод уступает только Индии. Особенно впечатляющими темпы потерь оказались после засухи 2007 года. Тем временем, потребность в пресной воде продолжает расти, а у стран ближневосточного региона нет координации в управлении водными ресурсами из-за разных интерпретаций международного права", — сказал ведущий автор исследования Джей Фамильетти (Jay Famiglietti), чьи слова цитирует пресс-служба JPL.
Всемирный банк в декабре 2012 года представил исследование, согласно которому страны Ближнего Востока и северной Африки особенно уязвимы для неблагоприятных последствий изменения климата, и в особенности засух и усиления дефицита пресной воды.

http://ria.ru/science/20130213/922660826.html

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ВИДЕО 12 минут

 Спутник GOCE раскроет тайны гравитации

Спутник "Гоче" (GOCE), запущенный под эгидой Европейского космического агентства в 2009-м для изучения гравитационного поля Земли, снижает высоту. Такова идея второго этапа миссии – обеспечить возможность максимально точного анализа гравитационных процессов, происходящих на нашей планете при взаимодействии с другими космическими телами.

"Гоче" обеспечивает физикам и астрономам уникальную информацию: построенные с его помощью модели -гравитационные карты – являются самыми точными в мире. Этих данных ждут и частные компании – в частности, геологоразведывательные. Изменение гравитационного рисунка, который фиксирует спутник, позволяет проникнуть в тайну подземных процессов – тектонических сдвигов, движения пород и прочее.

 http://ru.euronews.com/2013/02/21/gravity-s-grip-on-earth/

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GRACE тоже упоминаются.

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http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=21941.0

Earth monitoring deals via NASA money and overseas agencies. Thinking we can expect a lot of this in the future.

June 10, 2010

RELEASE: 10-138

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 sel ected 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 fr om
Greenland's ice sheet now are rapidly spreading up its northwest
coast.

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15.11.2016          НАСА завершило сборку "половинки" новых гравиметрических спутников
       
 Инженеры и ученые НАСА и компании Airbus завершили сборку первого зонда GRACE-FO, пара которых будет выведена на орбиту Земли в декабре 2017 года или в январе 2018 года, сообщает Лаборатория реактивного движения НАСА.
 
 Пара зондов GRACE была запущена с российского космодрома Плесецк в марте 2002 года. Главная цель этих аппаратов заключалась в составлении точной гравитационной карты Земли. Сейчас ученые используют спутники-"близнецы" для наблюдения за состоянием ледовых шапок и других климатологических целей, а также постоянных наблюдений за распределением массы по недрам Земли.
 
 Новые зонды, получившие имя GRACE-FO, будут оснащены теми же климатологическими и гравиметрическими инструментами, что и их предшественники, с более современными датчиками и более совершенным программным обеспечением.
 
 Как и "двойняшки" GRACE, эти зонды будут измерять силу притяжения Земли, наблюдая за тем, как меняется расстояние между ними в момент прохождения над отдельными точками поверхности планеты с точностью до одного микрона (миллионную долю метра).
 
 Столь точные замеры необходимы ученым для того, чтобы следить за тем, как перемещаются "непостоянные" источники притяжения – ледовые массивы, вода в океанах, воздух и даже жидкие породы в мантии Земли. Недавно такие наблюдения, к примеру, помогли выяснить, что Австралийский континент в буквальном смысле "шатается" на пару миллиметров в сторону северо-запада и юго-востока в результате накопления и таяния снега в Европе и Азии.
 
 Замена зондов GRACE, сроки работы которых подходят к концу, поможет НАСА и ученым со всего мира следить за тем, как сокращаются ледовые шапки Земли и как развивается ситуация с засухами на Ближнем Востоке, в Калифорнии и в других уголках планеты, испытывающих проблемы с доступом к воде в последние годы.
 
 По текущим планам НАСА, зонды GRACE-FO проработают на орбите как минимум пять лет, ежедневно получая данные по составу атмосферы и распределению различных веществ в ней, а также получая каждый месяц обновление гравитационные карты планеты. Помимо НАСА, в проекте по их разработке участвует Немецкий аэрокосмический центр (DLR) и ряд германских научных институтов, передает РИА Новости.
 
 А.Ж.

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http://za-neptunie.livejournal.com/290885.html

 17 марта 2002 года с космодрома Плесецк в космос отправилась пара спутников GRACE с целью сверхточного измерения гравитационного поля Земли. Первоначально аппараты были выведены на орбиту высотой в 500 км. На момент запуска ожидалось, что спутники смогут проработать по 5 лет, но и спустя 15 лет оба спутника продолжают свою работу.

    В настоящее время орбита космических аппаратов снизилась до 323х333 км. Тем самым в ближайшие несколько лет оба спутника (масса каждого 487 кг) упадут на Землю.