GravIS: mass anomaly products from satellite gravimetry

Abstract. Accurately quantifying global mass changes at the Earth’s surface is essential for understanding climate system dynamics and their evolution. Satellite gravimetry, as realized with the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) missions, is the only currently operative remote sensing system that can track large-scale mass variations, making it a unique monitoring opportunity for various geoscientific disciplines. To facilitate easy accessibility of GRACE/GRACE-FO results also beyond the geodetic community, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) developed the Gravity Information Service (GravIS) portal (https://gravis.gfz-potsdam.de). This work aims to introduce the user-friendly mass anomaly products provided at GravIS that are specifically processed for hydrology, glaciology, and oceanography applications. These mass change data, available in both a gridded representation and as time series for predefined regions, are routinely updated as new monthly GRACE/GRACE-FO gravity field models become available. The associated GravIS web portal visualizes and describes the products, demonstrating their usefulness for various studies and applications in geosciences. Together with GFZ’s complementary information portal globalwaterstorage.info, GravIS supports widening the dissemination of knowledge about satellite gravimetry in science and society and highlights the significance and contributions of the GRACE/GRACE-FO missions for understanding changes in the climate system.