NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and German Aerospace Center (DLR) Executive Board Chairman Johann-Dietrich Wörner. Credit: NASA/Michael Cabbage BERLIN - NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and German Aerospace Center (DLR) Executive Board Chairman Johann-Dietrich Wörner hold copies of a signed agreement to extend the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. Garver and Wörner signed the extension to an existing memorandum of understanding Thursday after a bilateral meeting in Berlin. The extension is expected to continue the GRACE mission until at least 2015.

GRACE consists of two spacecraft flying in tandem to precisely measure Earth's gravitational field. These measurements enable a better understanding of ocean surface currents and ocean heat transport. The mission measures changes in sea-floor pressure and shows how the mass of the oceans change. It also measures and monitors ice sheets and changes in the storage of water and snow on the continents.