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GRACE mission reaches five-year mark as leading global watchdog

Aerospace Engineering Professor Dr. Byron Tapley, director of the Center for Space Research at The University of Texas at Austin, leads the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. According to new analyses from the the twin satellites that measure global mass changes, melting of Greenland's ice sheet has increased dramatically in the past few years. The GRACE results were published in the Aug. 10 issue of Science.
Photo by Erin McCarley, 3/07  
Click on photo for hi-res version.

Aerospace Engineering Professor Dr. Byron Tapley (right), director of the Center for Space Research at The University of Texas at Austin, leads the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. With him are senior research scientists from the center who help lead data collection from the twin GRACE satellites.

 

 

Photo at left:  Dr. Srinivas Bettadpur, Dr. John Reis, and Dr. Byron Tapley, holder of the Clare Cockrell Williams Centennial Chair in Engineering.

Aerospace Engineering Professor Dr. Byron Tapley, director of the Center for Space Research at The University of Texas at Austin, leads the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. According to new analyses from the the twin satellites that measure global mass changes, melting of Greenland's ice sheet has increased dramatically in the past few years. The GRACE results were published in the Aug. 10 issue of Science.
Photo by Patrick Cummings, 8/06  
Click on photo for hi-res version.

 

 

 

 

Aerospace Engineering Professor Byron Tapley, director of the GRACE mission.

Photo at left: Dr. Byron Tapley with a model of the twin GRACE satellites, which are sensitive enough to the gravitational pull of masses on Earth to detect changes in mass. The gravitational impact causes minute changes in the distance between the paired satellites.

Dr. Byron Tapley
Photo by Erin McCarley, 3/07  
Click on photo for hi-res version.

 

 

 

Aerospace Engineering Professor Byron Tapley, who directs the GRACE mission.

Photo at left: Dr. Byron Tapley with a poster depicting three views of the gravity map of the world and the tandem GRACE satellites. The three views have a lumpy, variable surface, reflecting regions of lesser and greater mass at different regions.

Dr. Jianli Chen
Photo by Patrick Cummings, 8/06  
Click on photo for hi-res version. 

Using measurements taken from GRACE’s gravity maps, Dr. Jianli Chen authored an Aug. 10, 2006, study published in the journal Science showing dramatic increases in glacial melting on Greenland. Chen is a researcher at The University of Texas at Austin's Center for Space Research.

 

Photo at left: Dr. Chen also received a 2006 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for outstanding contributions to understanding the variations of the mass and angular momentum of oceans and global altimetry and gravity observations, and for unique leadership in advancing interdisciplinary science.