GRACE FO Soil Moisture Within Continental United States: Monitoring Drought

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission is a joint Earth-science project launched in 2018 by NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences to continue the work of the earlier GRACE mission. It consists of two satellites flying about 137 mi (220 km) apart in the same orbit around Earth, constantly measuring tiny changes in the distance between them. These variations occur because changes in Earth’s gravity, caused by shifting masses such as melting ice sheets, groundwater depletion, and ocean circulation, slightly alter the satellites’ speeds and separation. By precisely tracking these changes, GRACE FO allows scientists to map how water moves across the planet, improving our understanding of climate change, sea-level rise, and global water resources.

This visualization uses data from GRACE FO to create an index based on percentile dryness, categorizing the dregree of wetness or dryness within three domains: groundwater storage, root zone soil moisture, and surface moisture. It updates weekly, and extends back over a period of a year from the current week.

This visualization is created for use within the Earth Information Center (EIC).