GRACE/GRACE-FO science data archiving, distribution and user support at PO.DAAC

The Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) is the primary data archiving center for the GRACE/GRACE-FO mission products. During FY20, nearly 20 new and updated GRACE/GRACE-FO (Level-3,4) datasets have been archived and disseminated through PO.DAAC. In addition, a series of GRACE/GRACE-FO derived (Level-4) products supported by the MEaSUREs HOMAGE Project have been or soon will be released, including the published Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) dataset. Easing the barriers of science data discoverability and usability, PO.DAAC has devoted major efforts to increase the data accessibility by integrating all its available tools/services, such the PO.DAAC Drive, OPeNDAP, THREDDS, LAS and Web Services. As a value-added service, GRACE/GRACE-FO liquid water equivalent thickness from the JPL-produced Mascon CRI monthly grids RL06 v2 can be dynamically visualized on a global map using the PO.DAAC State of the Oceans (SOTO) tool.  The availability of new and reprocessed datasets is promoted through a variety of media, including PO.DAAC’s Web Portal, email, social media (i.e., Twitter, Facebook), data animations on Youtube, and the PO.DAAC Forum. Recently, PO.DAAC has rolled out a refreshed web portal interface to provide more intuitive user experience and efficient browsing functionality to help simplify the data discovery and access experience. Some new features are also added to enrich dataset information, such as dataset citations, sample read software and data recipes on PO.DAAC github, and an updated Forum. The goal of the PO.DAAC is to provide the GRACE/GRACE-FO community access to high quality data with minimal user effort in discovering, accessing, understanding and utilizing the data.