Taking gravity measurements into the future

The European Space Agency’s Next Generation Gravity Mission (NGGM) will deliver gravity measurements to yield unprecedented information on mass distribution and transport in the Earth system.

Mapping Earth’s gravity precisely and frequently over time will reveal, for example, where reservoirs of water and ice are and, importantly, how they are changing. This will lead to better insight into the water cycle and sea-level change. NGGM will also be used to measure changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturn Circulation pattern and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. In addition, it will improve knowledge of deformation processes during seismic cycles, improve the unification of national height systems, and improve estimates of the amount of heat that the ocean absorbs.

The mission, developed within ESA’s FutureEO programme, comprises two identical satellites that will form one of the pairs of satellites in the ESA–NASA MAGIC constellation, with the other pair being NASA-DLR’s GRACE-C mission.