Gravity and the hydrosphere: new frontier

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Abstract
Satellite gravity measurements expected in the next few years will provide unprecedented views of the Earth's gravity field and, given sufficient duration, its changes with time. Gravity changes directly reflect changes in the masses of the ocean (thus allowing the separation of steric (heat induced) and non-steric contributions to sea-level rise), the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and the water stored in the continents. Not only can measurements of those changes provide a truly global integrated view of the Earth, they have, at the same time, sufficient spatial resolution to aid in the study of individual regions of the Earth. These data should yield information on water cycling previously unobtainable and be useful to both fundamental studies of the hydrologic cycle and practical assessments of water availability and distribution. Together with complementary geophysical data, satellite gravity data represent a new frontier in studies of the Earth and its fluid envelope.