GRACE time-variable gravity and its application to geoscience: Quantitative analysis of relevant literature

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) is the most important gravity satellite to date in human history. Since its launch in 2002, GRACE time-varying gravity has had an unprecedented impact on earth science and has generated revolutionary changes. Because of natural phenomena such as climate warming, glacial melting, sea level rise, and earthquakes, earth science research has become an increasingly popular discipline in recent years. This article summarizes the importance of GRACE time-varying gravity, its application to geoscience, and its development. We analyzed the historical development and current status of GRACE time-varying gravity as well as research hotspots by searching the literature in the core collection databases of the China National Knowledge Infrastructure and the Web of Science over the past 20 years. The CiteSpace and VOSviewer software packages were applied with reference to the principle of literature metrology. Our investigation and analysis of characteristic indexes, such as the numbers of publications, co-occurrence of keywords, and co-citation of documents, uncovered the wide application and promotion of gravity satellites, especially GRACE time-varying gravity, in earth science. The results showed that the number of publications addressing GRACE data and time-varying gravity theory is increasing annually and that the USA, China, and Germany are the main producers. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States, and the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres rank among the top three institutions in the world in terms of producing the most publications on this topic. We found that GRACE time-varying gravity plays unique roles in measuring changes in terrestrial water storage changes, ice and snow melting and sea level changes, and (co)seismic gravity changes, as well as in promoting other disciplines.