This work estimates the variation of the gravity field elements in a period of two years and three months - April 2002 to July 2004 - using the GRACE mission data in the Guarani aquifer region; these changes are the sum of all the gravity changes that are caused by variations from mass distribution of the Earth's surface and by the deformation of the solid Earth in response to these mass variations. The solutions have been calculated only from the disturbances of the satellite orbits and do not depend on the gravity data available in the oceanic and continental areas. The calculations of the Earth's gravity field monthly solutions by using the GRACE mission data, considering the spherical harmonics, i.e., the Stokes coefficients, for the global gravity field, up to degree and order 150 (February/2003 to July/2004) and 120 (April, August and November 2002), have been transformed in geoidal height and free-air anomaly grids, with the respective associated errors. A linear 3-D inversion using the residual geoid height supplied the three dimensional density distribution, showing that the use of the GRACE data in investigation of the water mass variability in Guarani aquifer is feasible. A Bouguer anomaly profile, calculated by using the GRACE free-air anomaly and a digital topographic model data, was used in order to estimate the water mass variation in the Guarani aquifer region.
Guarani aquifer; geopotential; geoid; GRACE satellites; spherical harmonic; linear inversion
