# JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon RL06.3Mv04
*data products*

## Specifications
- **level**: L3
- **distributor**: nasa-jpl
- **file format**: netCDF
- **access endpoint**: https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/TELLUS_GRAC-GRFO_MASCON_GRID_RL06.3_V4
- **access model**: open
- **licence**: NASA EOSDIS open data; Earthdata Login required for protected archive access
- **cost model summary**: Free access through NASA Earthdata and PO.DAAC cloud services.
- **primary data portal url**: https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/TELLUS_GRAC-GRFO_MASCON_GRID_RL06.3_V4
- **use cases**: ["Monthly terrestrial water storage anomaly analysis","Ice-sheet and glacier mass-change monitoring","Ocean bottom pressure and ocean mass component analysis","Groundwater depletion screening at large basin scale","Sea-level budget studies separating mass change from steric change"]
- **practical limitations**: ["Native mass concentrations are solved on an equal-area 3-degree grid and served as gridded monthly fields, so basin-scale interpretation is more appropriate than local site analysis.","The non-CRI product does not correct leakage errors across coastlines; coastal land-ocean separation requires user-side treatment or the companion CRI product.","Monthly gravity solutions do not resolve short-lived hydrologic events or small aquifers below the product's spatial support."]
- **known artefacts**: ["Coastal leakage can mix land, ocean, and ice signals near shorelines.","Mission-gap periods between GRACE and GRACE-FO interrupt the monthly record."]
- **deployment context**: orbital
- **entity type**: data_product
- **last verified date**: 2026-06-08
- **verified by**: agency-doc
- **claim status**: agency-sourced
- **provider**: nasa-jpl
- **attributes**: {"level":"L3","distributor":"nasa-jpl","file_format":"netCDF","access_endpoint":"https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/TELLUS_GRAC-GRFO_MASCON_GRID_RL06.3_V4","access_model":"open","licence":"NASA EOSDIS open data; Earthdata Login required for protected archive access","cost_model_summary":"Free access through NASA Earthdata and PO.DAAC cloud services.","primary_data_portal_url":"https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/TELLUS_GRAC-GRFO_MASCON_GRID_RL06.3_V4","use_cases":"[\"Monthly terrestrial water storage anomaly analysis\",\"Ice-sheet and glacier mass-change monitoring\",\"Ocean bottom pressure and ocean mass component analysis\",\"Groundwater depletion screening at large basin scale\",\"Sea-level budget studies separating mass change from steric change\"]","practical_limitations":"[\"Native mass concentrations are solved on an equal-area 3-degree grid and served as gridded monthly fields, so basin-scale interpretation is more appropriate than local site analysis.\",\"The non-CRI product does not correct leakage errors across coastlines; coastal land-ocean separation requires user-side treatment or the companion CRI product.\",\"Monthly gravity solutions do not resolve short-lived hydrologic events or small aquifers below the product's spatial support.\"]","known_artefacts":"[\"Coastal leakage can mix land, ocean, and ice signals near shorelines.\",\"Mission-gap periods between GRACE and GRACE-FO interrupt the monthly record.\"]","deployment_context":"orbital"}
- **relevance**: in-scope

## Editorial
JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon RL06.3Mv04 is a Level 3 monthly mass-change grid derived from GRACE and GRACE-FO gravity observations and distributed by NASA JPL through PO.DAAC.[^podaac-jpl-mascon] The product reports global water storage or height anomalies relative to a time mean in centimetres of equivalent water thickness, with a record starting in April 2002 and active version status for RL06.3Mv04.[^podaac-jpl-mascon] JPL solves the monthly gravity variation as geolocated spherical-cap mass concentrations instead of global spherical harmonic coefficients, and PO.DAAC serves the collection as a single netCDF file with download, subset, OPeNDAP, and cloud access paths.[^podaac-jpl-mascon]

The product supports large-basin terrestrial water storage, groundwater depletion screening, ice-sheet and glacier mass change, ocean bottom pressure, and sea-level budget analysis where the mass component must be separated from steric height change.[^podaac-jpl-mascon][^gracefo-data] Its practical scale is monthly and regional: the complete mascon solution contains 4,551 independent estimates built on an equal-area 3-degree mascon grid, so local aquifer or individual glacier interpretation needs external constraints.[^podaac-jpl-mascon] The non-CRI collection does not correct coastline leakage, which matters near ice margins, islands, and narrow shelves; users needing land-ocean separation near coasts normally choose the companion CRI-filtered collection or apply their own separation method.[^podaac-jpl-mascon]

## Compositional position
- grace (missions) --[data_products_from_missions]--> JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon RL06.3Mv04
- grace-fo (missions) --[data_products_from_missions]--> JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon RL06.3Mv04
- glacier-ice-mass (topics) --[topic_capabilities]--> JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon RL06.3Mv04
- groundwater (topics) --[topic_capabilities]--> JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon RL06.3Mv04
- sea-level (topics) --[topic_capabilities]--> JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon RL06.3Mv04

## Sources
- [podaac-jpl-mascon] | JPL GRACE and GRACE-FO Mascon Ocean, Ice, and Hydrology Equivalent Water Height JPL Release 06.3 Version 04 | https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/TELLUS_GRAC-GRFO_MASCON_GRID_RL06.3_V4 | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-08 | published=2024-08-13
- [gracefo-data] | GRACE-FO Data | https://gracefo.jpl.nasa.gov/data/ | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-08

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Source: https://eo-atlas.org/data_products/jpl-grace-grace-fo-mascon-rl06m
Maintainer: SpectraWorks B.V. (CC-BY 4.0)