Warming Makes Droughts, Extreme Wet Events More Frequent, Intense

Scientists have predicted that droughts and floods will become more frequent and severe as our planet warms and climate changes, but detecting this on regional and continental scales has proven difficult. Now a new NASA-led study confirms that major droughts and pluvials – periods of excessive precipitation and water storage on land – have indeed been occurring more often. Read more ›

NASA Measures Underground Water Flowing From Sierra to Central Valley

In a recent study, scientists found that a previously unmeasured source – water percolating through soil and fractured rock below California’s Sierra Nevada mountains – delivers an average of 4 million acre feet (5 cubic kilometers) of water to the state’s Central Valley each year. Read more ›

NASA Finds New Way to Monitor Underground Water Loss

Researchers have untangled puzzling patterns of sinking and rising land to pin down the underground locations where water is being pumped for irrigation. Read more ›

slide 4 - GRACE-FO data showing groundwater reserves in the Northern Great Plains

Drought in the Northern Great Plains

Decades of drought across the U.S. Southwest has led some scientists to classify the intense, prolonged dryness as a “megadrought.” But drought in North America took a different shape in 2021, affecting areas that do not face long-term or intense drought as often. The northern Great Plains has been coping with drought for months. Read more ›

slide 5 - An illustration of the GRACE-FO Mission

International Cooperation Award for NASA JPL's Michael Watkins, Michael Gross

Focusing on the GRACE and GRACE-FO missions, the award cites the “outstanding leadership of the international consortium in the planning and implementation of the successful Earth gravity missions.” Read more ›

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Measuring Earth's Surface Mass and Water Changes

GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) is continuing GRACE’s legacy of tracking Earth’s water movement across the planet. Monitoring changes in ice sheets and glaciers, underground water storage, the amount of water in large lakes and rivers, and changes in sea level provides a unique view of Earth’s climate and has far-reaching benefits for its people.

Measuring Earth's Surface Mass and Water Changes

GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) is continuing GRACE’s legacy of tracking Earth’s water movement across the planet. Monitoring changes in ice sheets and glaciers, underground water storage, the amount of water in large lakes and rivers, and changes in sea level provides a unique view of Earth’s climate and has far-reaching benefits for its people.

More Headlines

June 13, 2018

Ramp-Up in Antarctic Ice Loss Speeds Sea Level Rise

Antarctic ice losses have tripled since 2012, raising global sea levels by 0.12 inch (3 millimeters) in that timeframe alone, finds a new NASA/ESA-funded climate assessment.
May 17, 2018

NASA Satellites Reveal Major Shifts in Global Freshwater

NASA scientists used GRACE data to identify regional trends of freshwater movement, and combined that information with data from other satellites, climate models and precipitation measurements to determine the causes of major regional trends in freshwater storage.
March 29, 2018

NASA Renews Focus on Earth's Frozen Regions

In 2018, NASA will intensify its focus on one of the most critical but remote parts of our changing planet with the launch of GRACE-FO and ICESat-2, and an array of airborne campaigns.

Featured Multimedia

GRACE-FO 3D Model

A 3D interactive model of NASA's GRACE-FO spacecraft.
Rocket Flames

Flames from the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching GRACE-FO into orbit.
GRACE-FO Launch, Long Exposure

A long exposure of the GRACE-FO launch from Vandenberg