dataset · USA
NASA GRACE-DA-DM Project
Scientists at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center generate groundwater and soil moisture drought indicators each week. They are based on terrestrial water storage observations derived from GRACE satellite data and integrated with other observations, using a sophisticated numerical model of land surface water and energy processes. This data product is GRACE Data Assimilation for Drought Monitoring (GRACE-DA-DM) U.S. Version 4.0 data product and supersedes the GRACE-DA-DM Version 2.0. The GRACE-DA-DM
Visit source ↗Source details
Licence: [Creative Commons BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Evidence quality: 53.7
Listed in aws-odr public catalogue API on 2026-10-16; relevance/value screened (haiku).
Metadata checked: 2026-10-14T13:20:00.000Z
What's in it
- Data offered docs-verified
- groundwater percentile drought indicator · root zone soil moisture percentile drought indicator · surface soil moisture percentile drought indicator
- Coverage docs-verified
- North America (US V4.0, 0.125 deg grid); global (Global V3.0, 0.25 deg grid) · April 1, 2002 to present (US V4.0); February 2003 to present (Global V3.0)
- Resolution docs-verified
- 0.125 x 0.125 deg (US V4.0, North America); 0.25 x 0.25 deg (Global V3.0)
- Update frequency docs-verified
- Weekly; daily values but only one day (Monday) published per week; operational data latency 2-9 days
- Formats docs-verified
- NetCDF
- Access docs-verified
- Free and open under CC BY 4.0; requires a NASA Earthdata Login account; AWS S3 bucket is controlled access
Useful for
- Use cases llm-inferred
- Regional soil moisture and groundwater drought percentile context for a North American water resources or agricultural engagement · Drought baseline comparison for a global (non-US) study area using the Global V3.0 product at 0.25 deg · Cross-checking modelled root zone soil moisture against a 1948-2014 percentile baseline
- Audience llm-inferred
- hydrologists · water resources engineers · climate and drought analysts · GIS analysts
Limitations
- Constraints llm-inferred
- US V4.0 covers North America only; UK coverage relies on the Global V3.0 product at 0.25 deg, which is coarse for UK catchment work · Entry tags region as USA only, but the docs also describe a global product · Entry sets auth to null, but the docs require an Earthdata Login account · Percentiles are relative to the 1948-2014 period of record · Final archive has 3-6 month latency; the operational product has a separate 2-9 day latency via a NASA GRACE page · Only one day (Monday) per week is published · Registry lists update frequency as 'Varies by dataset' · No API or MCP tools are listed, so data must be downloaded as NetCDF
Evidence
- arn:aws:s3:::gesdisc-cumulus-prod-protected/GRACEDA/GRACEDADM_CLSM0125US_7D.4.0, arn:aws:s3:::gesdisc-cumulus-prod-protected/GRACEDA/GRACEDADM_CLSM025GL_7D.3.0
- https://registry.opendata.aws/nasa-grace-da-dm/
Check upstream coverage, uncertainty and licence before use. Station observations are not forecasts or design levels.