Quantifying and reducing leakage errors in the JPL RL05M GRACE mascon solution

Abstract Recent advances in processing data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) have led to a new generation of gravity solutions constrained within a Bayesian framework to remove correlated errors rather than relying on empirical filters. The JPL RL05M mascon solution is one such solution, solving for mass variations using spherical cap mass concentration elements (mascons), while relying on external information provided by near‐global geophysical models to constrain the solution. This new gravity solution is fundamentally different than the traditional spherical harmonic gravity solution, and as such, requires different care when postprocessing. Here we discuss two classes of…