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GRACE Detects Brazil Drought
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- Visualizations by:
- Alex Kekesi
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- Scientific consulting by:
- Augusto Getirana
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- Produced by:
- Joy Ng
- View full credits
Example animation showing significant ground water storage loss around Brazil's most populated areas. This animation starts with a global view of the Americas, then zooms into the country of Brazil. The location of major reservoirs are revealed, followed by population data. Lastly, GRACE water storage anomaly data for the months of April, May, June is shown beginning in 2002 and going up to 2014. Finally, the region around São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro is highlighted to show the significant water storage loss in this highly populated region.
This video is also available on our YouTube channel.
GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) maps variations in Earth's gravity field. GRACE consists of two identical spacecraft that fly about 220 kilometers (137 miles) apart in a polar orbit 500 kilometers (310 miles) above Earth. GRACE maps Earth's gravity field by making accurate measurements of the distance between the two satellites, using GPS and a microwave ranging system. It is providing scientists from all over the world with an efficient and cost-effective way to map Earth's gravity field with unprecedented accuracy. The results from this mission are yielding crucial information about the distribution and flow of mass within Earth and its surroundings.
The gravity variations studied by GRACE can be used to determine ground water storage on land masses. By comparing current data to an average over time, scientists can generate an anomaly map to see where ground water storage has been depleted or increased.
GRACE is a joint partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States and Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR) in Germany. Project management and systems engineering activities are carried out by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
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Visualizer
- Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.) [Lead]
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Scientist
- Augusto Getirana (ORAU) [Lead]
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Producers
- Joy Ng (KBRwyle) [Lead]
- Kayvon Sharghi (USRA)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Datasets used in this visualization
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) TWS Anomaly (A.K.A. Terrestrial Water Storage Anomaly)
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.