The GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-Follow-On) satellites launched in May 2018 are able to quantify the water mass deficit in Central Europe. Relative to long-term climate development, the water mass deficits during the two consecutive summer droughts of 2018 and 2019 amounted to 112 Gt in 2018 and even 145 Gt in 2019, according to a research team from the German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ and the University of Potsdam led by Eva Börgens.