Launched from Northern Russia on March 17, 2002, on what was designed to be a three- to five-year mission, GRACE continues its task of making detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field. It does so by noting minute changes in gravitational pull caused by local changes in Earth's mass. Masses of ice, air, water and solid Earth can be moved by weather patterns, seasonal change, climate change and even tectonic events such as large earthquakes. To track these changes, GRACE uses GPS and a microwave ranging system to measure micron-scale variations in the 220-kilometer (137-mile) separation between the two spacecraft, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 

These measurements are used to produce monthly gravity maps that are more than 100 times more precise than previous models, providing the resolution necessary to characterize how Earth's gravity field varies over time and space, and over land and sea. The data have substantially improved the accuracy of techniques used by oceanographers, hydrologists, glaciologists, geologists and climate scientists. 

"GRACE essentially demonstrated a new form of remote sensing for climate research that has turned out even better than we hoped," said GRACE Project Scientist Michael Watkins of JPL "We realized early on in the design of GRACE that we could measure the gravity field well enough to observe the critical indicators of climate change - sea level rise and polar ice melt." 

GRACE is a joint mission with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ), in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin. During its first decade of operations, the mission has made remarkable contributions to many scientific disciplines, expanding our knowledge of ice loss from the polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers, groundwater storage on land, sea level variations and large-scale ocean circulation, to name but a few.  

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-077

Presently one of the NASA scientists in charge of the mission is in Australia to tell us about present climate change as measured by GRACE... As he explained very clearly on Fran Kelly breakfast show, no denialist can attack this extraordinary very precise data that shows the earth is warming as the ice is thinning (or melting) fast. 

As I have mentioned before, as the ice is melting it cools some adjacent areas in a way an old fashing fridge would when we leave its door open... This process often somehow masks the rate of warming, until sufficient amount of ice has melted from the heating surroundings, and then the temperature goes up at hundred miles an hour...

GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL and something has to be done about it if we want to minimise its impact on future generation. The culprits are the EXTRA CO2 and methane released by human activities, in the time frame of this geological era... 

The Carbon Tax is the start of a mechanism to tackle our HUGE consumption of EXTRA carbon (which results in the release of CO2 and methane). The carbon price (carbon tax) in Australia is $23 per tonnes of carbon while in switzerland it is much higher (presently $36 per tonnes) and about to go higher still on non-energy hydrocarbon usage. Such tax is thus applied to "fuel for transport (except diesel) and other industrial product manufacturing".

Australia consumes more carbon than any other country per capita.

Showing the world, especially the US (China is soon coming online with a small carbon tax) that it can be done. Europe has had an ETS since 2005. Though not perfect and subject from time to time to some fiddling, this European ETS is still working well in encouraging the reduction of consumption of carbon.

PEOPLE of Australia, stop being sooks and wet socks... Embrace the carbon tax and your kids will thank you in 20 years time...