With the advent of GRACE, GRACE Follow-On, and GRAIL in the last 20 years, remote sensing via gravity has made incredible advances, particularly for time variable gravity observations of key climate variables.  In this talk, we will review, both technically and scientifically, how we got here, where we are today (including latest cutting edge results), and opportunities for significant improvement in the next decade. 

 

 

Michael Watkins is the Allen and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair as Director of the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) and Professor of Aerospace and Geophysics at Caltech. He was the Director of JPL from 2016-2021 and Vice-President of Caltech. He was a co-inventor of the GRACE mission, and was the Project Scientist of GRACE, GRAIL, and GRACE Follow-on. He is a member of the NAE and Fellow of the AIAA. He received his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas.