GOCE gradiometer: estimation of biases and scale factors of all six individual accelerometers by precise orbit determination

A method has been implemented and tested for estimating bias and scale factor parameters for all six individual accelerometers that will fly on-board of GOCE and together form the so-called gradiometer. The method is based on inclusion of the individual accelerometer observations in precise orbit determinations, opposed to the baseline method where so-called common-mode accelerometer observations are used. The method was tested using simulated data from a detailed GOCE system simulator. It was found that the observations taken by individual accelerometers need to be corrected for (1) local satellite gravity gradient (SGG), and (2) rotational terms caused by centrifugal and angular accelerations, due to the fact that they are not located in the satellite’s center of mass. For these corrections, use is made of a reference gravity field model. In addition, the rotational terms are derived from on-board star tracker observations. With a perfect a priori gravity field model and with the estimation of not only accelerometer biases but also accelerometer drifts, scale factors can be determined with an accuracy and stability better than 0.01 for two of the three axes of each accelerometer, the exception being the axis pointing along the long axis of the satellite (more or less coinciding with the flight direction) for which the scale factor estimates are unreliable. This axis coincides with the axis of drag-free control, which results in a small variance of the signal to be calibrated and thus an inaccurate determination of its scale factor in the presence of relatively large (colored) accelerometer observation errors. In the presence of gravity field model errors, it was found that still an accuracy and stability of about 0.015 can be obtained for the accelerometer scale factors by simultaneously estimating empirical accelerations.     

GOCE卫星重力梯度校准与无阻尼控制效果分析

GOCE卫星是首颗搭载高精度梯度仪,通过加速度计差分测量确定地球重力场的现代重力卫星。该卫星设计为无阻尼飞行状态（沿轨方向）,加速度计并未安置在卫星质心,这些特点使得GOCE与标准的卫星跟踪卫星重力测量模式有着显著的区别。本文首先指出GOCE任务中普通模式加速度校准存在不严密性问题,并提出了分别校准6个加速度计,分离偏差参数的方案。利用GOCE任务期内的几何法精密轨道,采用动力法完成校准,并分析了无阻尼控制的效果,发现：①虽然GOCE所在轨道高度的中性大气密度较GRACE高两到三个量级,但GOCE卫星在沿轨方向的残余非保守力比GRACE卫星的对应分量小一个量级,充分显示了无阻尼控制系统的补偿效果;②通过精密轨道内插的轨道速度与动力法轨道速度的比较可以得出,卫星无阻尼控制系统对GOCE卫星速度的显著影响;③计算了GOCE卫星所受的非保守力。获得了GOCE任务期间的加速度计校准参数,并讨论了利用其辅助重力梯度仪数据预处理的可能方法。     

利用先验重力场模型对GOCE卫星重力梯度观测值进行校准分析

GOCE卫星任务搭载了高灵敏度的重力梯度仪,其观测值用于恢复高精度高分辨率的地球重力场。本文利用EIGEN-5C、EGM2008、GOTIM3、GGM03S高精度全球重力场模型,确定了GOCE引力梯度张量的对角分量观测值(Vxx、Vyy、Vzz)的校准参数,分析了比例因子的稳定性,并讨论了相同模型不同阶次、同阶次不同模型以及是否估计漂移参数对比例因子、偏差参数及校准观测值的影响。研究表明比例因子的稳定性在10-4的量级,利用250阶的EIGEN-5C模型和EGM2008模型校准得到观测值的差异小于10-4 E,远远小于观测误差,以1d为周期估计校准参数时,是否估计漂移对校准结果的影响达到0.4E。同时,校准前后观测值差异的频谱说明校准过程主要影响Vxx、Vyy、Vzz观测值的低频部分,即来自先验重力场模型的中低(150)阶次,考虑到GOCE引力梯度的观测频带,校准后的观测值可用于恢复中高频的重力场信号。     

利用GOCE卫星轨道数据恢复地球重力场模型方法的分析

欧空局早期公布的时域法和空域法解算的GOCE模型均采用能量守恒法处理轨道数据, 但恢复的长波重力场信号精度较低, 而且GOCE卫星在两极存在数据空白, 利用其观测数据恢复重力场模型是一个不适定问题, 导致解算的模型带谐项精度较低, 需进行正则化处理。本文分析了基于轨道数据恢复重力场模型的方法用于处理GOCE数据的精度, 对最优正则化方法和参数的选择进行研究。利用GOCE卫星2009-11-01—2010-01-31共92 d的精密轨道数据, 采用不依赖先验信息的能量守恒法、短弧积分法和平均加速度法恢复GOCE重力场模型, 利用Tikhonov正则化技术处理病态问题。结果表明, 平均加速度法恢复模型的精度最高, 能量守恒法的精度最低, 短弧积分法的精度稍差于平均加速度法。未来联合处理轨道和梯度数据时, 建议采用平均加速度法或短弧积分法处理轨道数据, 并且轨道数据可有效恢复120阶次左右的模型。Kaula正则化和SOT处理GOCE病态问题的效果最好, 并且两者对应的最优正则化参数基本一致, 但利用正则化技术不能完全抑制极空白问题的影响, 需要联合GRACE等其他数据才能获得理想的结果。     

利用先验重力场模型求定GOCE卫星重力梯度仪校准参数

重力梯度仪校准参数的确定是GOCE重力梯度观测数据处理的关键环节。本文对GOCE卫星重力梯度观测值中的时变信号与粗差进行了分析,利用高精度全球重力场模型,确定了GOCE重力梯度观测值各分量的尺度因子与偏差,并对校准结果进行了精度评定。结果表明,在测量带宽内,海潮对重力梯度观测值影响在mE量级,与重力梯度仪的精度水平相当,陆地水等非潮汐重力场时变信号略小于海潮,量级约为10^-4E;各分量重力梯度观测值的粗差比例均大于0.2%;除EGM96模型外的其他模型对GOCE重力梯度仪进行校准后,V_xx、V_yy、V_zz、V_yz分量上尺度因子的稳定性均在10^-4量级,V_xz分量能达到10^-5量级,V_xy分量为10^-2量级,这与梯度观测值各分量的精度水平一致。     

Geoid and high resolution sea surface topography modelling in the mediterranean from gravimetry,altimetry and GOCE data: evaluation by simulation

The determination of local geoid models has traditionally been carried out on land and at sea using gravity anomaly and satellite altimetry data, while it will be aided by the data expected from satellite missions such as those from the Gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer (GOCE). To assess the performance of heterogeneous data combination to local geoid determination, simulated data for the central Mediterranean Sea are analyzed. These data include marine and land gravity anomalies, altimetric sea surface heights, and GOCE observations processed with the space-wise approach. A spectral analysis of the aforementioned data shows their complementary character. GOCE data cover long wavelengths and account for the lack of such information from gravity anomalies. This is exploited for the estimation of local covariance function models, where it is seen that models computed with GOCE data and gravity anomaly empirical covariance functions perform better than models computed without GOCE data. The geoid is estimated by different data combinations and the results show that GOCE data improve the solutions for areas covered poorly with other data types, while also accounting for any long wavelength errors of the adopted reference model that exist even when the ground gravity data are dense. At sea, the altimetric data provide the dominant geoid information. However, the geoid accuracy is sensitive to orbit calibration errors and unmodeled sea surface topography (SST) effects. If such effects are present, the combination of GOCE and gravity anomaly data can improve the geoid accuracy. The present work also presents results from simulations for the recovery of the stationary SST, which show that the combination of geoid heights obtained from a spherical harmonic geopotential model derived from GOCE with satellite altimetry data can provide SST models with some centimeters of error. However, combining data from GOCE with gravity anomalies in a collocation approach can result in the estimation of a higher resolution geoid, more suitable for high resolution mean dynamic SST modeling. Such simulations can be performed toward the development and evaluation of SST recovery methods.     

Adaptive filtering of GOCE-derived gravity gradients of the disturbing potential in the context of the space-wise approach

Filtering and signal processing techniques have been widely used in the processing of satellite gravity observations to reduce measurement noise and correlation errors. The parameters and types of filters used depend on the statistical and spectral properties of the signal under investigation. Filtering is usually applied in a non-real-time environment. The present work focuses on the implementation of an adaptive filtering technique to process satellite gravity gradiometry data for gravity field modeling. Adaptive filtering algorithms are commonly used in communication systems, noise and echo cancellation, and biomedical applications. Two independent studies have been performed to introduce adaptive signal processing techniques and test the performance of the least mean-squared (LMS) adaptive algorithm for filtering satellite measurements obtained by the gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer (GOCE) mission. In the first study, a Monte Carlo simulation is performed in order to gain insights about the implementation of the LMS algorithm on data with spectral behavior close to that of real GOCE data. In the second study, the LMS algorithm is implemented on real GOCE data. Experiments are also performed to determine suitable filtering parameters. Only the four accurate components of the full GOCE gravity gradient tensor of the disturbing potential are used. The characteristics of the filtered gravity gradients are examined in the time and spectral domain. The obtained filtered GOCE gravity gradients show an agreement of 63–84 mEötvös (depending on the gravity gradient component), in terms of RMS error, when compared to the gravity gradients derived from the EGM2008 geopotential model. Spectral-domain analysis of the filtered gradients shows that the adaptive filters slightly suppress frequencies in the bandwidth of approximately 10–30 mHz. The limitations of the adaptive LMS algorithm are also discussed. The tested filtering algorithm can be connected to and employed in the first computational steps of the space-wise approach, where a time-wise Wiener filter is applied at the first stage of GOCE gravity gradient filtering. The results of this work can be extended to using other adaptive filtering algorithms, such as the recursive least-squares and recursive least-squares lattice filters.     

Preprocessing of gravity gradients at the GOCE high-level processing facility

One of the products derived from the gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer (GOCE) observations are the gravity gradients. These gravity gradients are provided in the gradiometer reference frame (GRF) and are calibrated in-flight using satellite shaking and star sensor data. To use these gravity gradients for application in Earth scienes and gravity field analysis, additional preprocessing needs to be done, including corrections for temporal gravity field signals to isolate the static gravity field part, screening for outliers, calibration by comparison with existing external gravity field information and error assessment. The temporal gravity gradient corrections consist of tidal and nontidal corrections. These are all generally below the gravity gradient error level, which is predicted to show a 1/f behaviour for low frequencies. In the outlier detection, the 1/f error is compensated for by subtracting a local median from the data, while the data error is assessed using the median absolute deviation. The local median acts as a high-pass filter and it is robust as is the median absolute deviation. Three different methods have been implemented for the calibration of the gravity gradients. All three methods use a high-pass filter to compensate for the 1/f gravity gradient error. The baseline method uses state-of-the-art global gravity field models and the most accurate results are obtained if star sensor misalignments are estimated along with the calibration parameters. A second calibration method uses GOCE GPS data to estimate a low-degree gravity field model as well as gravity gradient scale factors. Both methods allow to estimate gravity gradient scale factors down to the 10⁻³ level. The third calibration method uses high accurate terrestrial gravity data in selected regions to validate the gravity gradient scale factors, focussing on the measurement band. Gravity gradient scale factors may be estimated down to the 10⁻² level with this method.     

Calibrating the GOCE accelerations with star sensor data and a global gravity field model

A reliable and accurate gradiometer calibration is essential for the scientific return of the gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer (GOCE) mission. This paper describes a new method for external calibration of the GOCE gradiometer accelerations. A global gravity field model in combination with star sensor quaternions is used to compute reference differential accelerations, which may be used to estimate various combinations of gradiometer scale factors, internal gradiometer misalignments and misalignments between star sensor and gradiometer. In many aspects, the new method is complementary to the GOCE in-flight calibration. In contrast to the in-flight calibration, which requires a satellite-shaking phase, the new method uses data from the nominal measurement phases. The results of a simulation study show that gradiometer scale factors can be estimated on a weekly basis with accuracies better than 2 × 10⁻³ for the ultrasensitive and 10⁻² for the less sensitive axes, which is compatible with the requirements of the gravity gradient error. Based on a 58-day data set, scale factors are found that can reduce the errors of the in-flight-calibrated measurements. The elements of the complete inverse calibration matrix, representing both the internal gradiometer misalignments and scale factors, can be estimated with accuracies in general better than 10⁻³.     

GOCE实测数据反演高阶重力场模型的Torus方法

不同于当前广泛使用的空域法、时域法、直接解法,本文尝试采用Torus方法处理GOCE实测数据,利用71 d的GOCE卫星引力梯度数据反演了200阶次GOCE地球重力场模型,实现了对参考模型的精化。首先,采用Butterworth零相移滤波方法加移去—恢复技术,处理引力梯度观测值中的有色噪声,并利用泰勒级数展开和Kriging方法对GOCE卫星引力梯度数据进行归算和格网化,计算得到了名义轨道上格网点处的引力梯度数据。然后,利用2D-FFT技术和块对角最小二乘方法处理名义轨道上数据,获得了200阶次的GOCE地球重力场模型GOCE_Torus。利用中国和美国的GPS/水准数据进行外部检核结果说明,GOCE_Torus与ESA发布的同期模型的精度相当;GOCE_Torus模型与200阶次的EGM2008模型相比,在美国区域精度相当,但在中国区域精度提高了4.6 cm,这充分体现了GOCE卫星观测数据对地面重力稀疏区的贡献。Torus方法拥有快速高精度反演卫星重力场模型的优势,可以在重力梯度卫星的设计、误差分析及在轨快速评估等方面得到充分应用。     

Evaluation of the first GOCE static gravity field models using terrestrial gravity,vertical deflections and EGM2008 quasigeoid heights

Recently, four global geopotential models (GGMs) were computed and released based on the first 2 months of data collected by the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) dedicated satellite gravity field mission. Given that GOCE is a technologically complex mission and different processing strategies were applied to real space-collected GOCE data for the first time, evaluation of the new models is an important aspect. As a first assessment strategy, we use terrestrial gravity data over Switzerland and Australia and astrogeodetic vertical deflections over Europe and Australia as ground-truth data sets for GOCE model evaluation. We apply a spectral enhancement method (SEM) to the truncated GOCE GGMs to make their spectral content more comparable with the terrestrial data. The SEM utilises the high-degree bands of EGM2008 and residual terrain model data as a data source to widely bridge the spectral gap between the satellite and terrestrial data. Analysis of root mean square (RMS) errors is carried out as a function of (i) the GOCE GGM expansion degree and (ii) the four different GOCE GGMs. The RMS curves are also compared against those from EGM2008 and GRACE-based GGMs. As a second assessment strategy, we compare global grids of GOCE GGM and EGM2008 quasigeoid heights. In connection with EGM2008 error estimates, this allows location of regions where GOCE is likely to deliver improved knowledge on the Earth’s gravity field. Our ground truth data sets, together with the EGM2008 quasigeoid comparisons, signal clear improvements in the spectral band ~160–165 to ~180–185 in terms of spherical harmonic degrees for the GOCE-based GGMs, fairly independently of the individual GOCE model used. The results from both assessments together provide strong evidence that the first 2 months of GOCE observations improve the knowledge of the Earth’s static gravity field at spatial scales between ~125 and ~110 km, particularly over parts of Asia, Africa, South America and Antarctica, in comparison with the pre-GOCE-era.     

Improving GOCE cross-track gravity gradients

The GOCE gravity gradiometer measured highly accurate gravity gradients along the orbit during GOCE’s mission lifetime from March 17, 2009, to November 11, 2013. These measurements contain unique information on the gravity field at a spatial resolution of 80 km half wavelength, which is not provided to the same accuracy level by any other satellite mission now and in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, the gravity gradient in cross-track direction is heavily perturbed in the regions around the geomagnetic poles. We show in this paper that the perturbing effect can be modeled accurately as a quadratic function of the non-gravitational acceleration of the satellite in cross-track direction. Most importantly, we can remove the perturbation from the cross-track gravity gradient to a great extent, which significantly improves the accuracy of the latter and offers opportunities for better scientific exploitation of the GOCE gravity gradient data set.     

First GOCE gravity field models derived by three different approaches

Three gravity field models, parameterized in terms of spherical harmonic coefficients, have been computed from 71 days of GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) orbit and gradiometer data by applying independent gravity field processing methods. These gravity models are one major output of the European Space Agency (ESA) project GOCE High-level Processing Facility (HPF). The processing philosophies and architectures of these three complementary methods are presented and discussed, emphasizing the specific features of the three approaches. The resulting GOCE gravity field models, representing the first models containing the novel measurement type of gravity gradiometry ever computed, are analysed and assessed in detail. Together with the coefficient estimates, full variance-covariance matrices provide error information about the coefficient solutions. A comparison with state-of-the-art GRACE and combined gravity field models reveals the additional contribution of GOCE based on only 71 days of data. Compared with combined gravity field models, large deviations appear in regions where the terrestrial gravity data are known to be of low accuracy. The GOCE performance, assessed against the GRACE-only model ITG-Grace2010s, becomes superior at degree 150, and beyond. GOCE provides significant additional information of the global Earth gravity field, with an accuracy of the 2-month GOCE gravity field models of 10?cm in terms of geoid heights, and 3?mGal in terms of gravity anomalies, globally at a resolution of 100?km (degree/order 200).     

星载加速度计增强北斗自主定轨性能

卫星自主定轨是提高全球卫星导航系统(GNSS)可靠性、稳健性、完整性和生存能力的重要保证。新一代的北斗卫星已可以进行星间链路测距,从而达到提高卫星全球跟踪能力以及实现整个卫星导航系统的自主定轨。然而由于卫星运行会受到多种摄动力的影响,如果不能对这些摄动力进行精密的改正,在没有地面或其他天体提供绝对约束的条件下,导航系统会随着自主定轨时间的延长出现星座整体旋转。卫星所受摄动力分为保守力和非保守力两部分:对于保守力,如地球非球形摄动、潮汐摄动、太阳月球和其他三体引力,现在已有的力学模型可以很精确地进行改正;而非保守力(如太阳光压摄动),则难以用精确的模型进行改正,因此成为影响卫星定轨精度的主要因素。星载加速度计可以高精度地测量非保守力,并已成功应用于重力卫星(CHAMP、GRACE、GOCE)的重力场反演与大气研究中。本文研究主要探讨采用星上加速度计提高北斗卫星自主定轨精度和延长自主定轨时长的可行性。利用模拟的卫星轨道和星间链路数据,以及现有的星载加速度计误差模型,对北斗卫星系统分别使用星间链路数据和星间链路与加速度计组合数据,进行自主定轨与精度评定。计算结果表明,使用星间链路与星载加速度计数据进行自主定轨,较单纯使用星间链路数据精度具有明显改进。在模拟的星间测距观测数据具有0.33m随机噪声以及分米级系统误差,自主定轨两个月的情况下,联合使用加速度计数据的自主定轨IGSO和MEO卫星精度为分米级,而仅使用星间链路数据的定轨精度约为3~6m,比使用加速度计精度低一个量级。     

Full-scale structural monitoring using an integrated GPS and accelerometer system

Accurate in situ measurement of the full-scale structural responses, especially tall buildings, under severe loading conditions is an important requirement for validating their design, evaluating their construction as well as facilitating their maintenance. Traditionally such response has been measured using accelerometers. However, it is impossible to measure the static and quasi-static components of motion with acceleration sensors. An integrated system comprising of RTK-GPS and accelerometers has been developed with the objective of assessing full-scale structural responses by exploiting the complementary characteristics of GPS and accelerometer sensors. The data used in this paper were obtained from GPS and accelerometer sensors installed on a 108-m-high steel tower in Tokyo, together with other sensors such as anemometer and strain gauge. The seismic and wind-induced responses of the tower were analyzed using the Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) and compared to results from finite element modeling (FEM). In order to study the system reliability, the correlated signals were extracted by applying a digital filtering technique. Then the filtered data sets were converted to displacement (in the case of accelerometer data) and acceleration (in the case of GPS data) through double integration and double differentiation, respectively, for the purpose of direct comparison and to further fuse data from the two different sensors. The results agree with each other very well, although the static and quasi-static components are missing from the accelerometer-derived results. The redundancy of the monitoring system therefore has been achieved.     

The gravity field model IGGT_R1 based on the second invariant of the GOCE gravitational gradient tensor

Based on tensor theory, three invariants of the gravitational gradient tensor (IGGT) are independent of the gradiometer reference frame (GRF). Compared to traditional methods for calculation of gravity field models based on the gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer (GOCE) data, which are affected by errors in the attitude indicator, using IGGT and least squares method avoids the problem of inaccurate rotation matrices. The IGGT approach as studied in this paper is a quadratic function of the gravity field model’s spherical harmonic coefficients. The linearized observation equations for the least squares method are obtained using a Taylor expansion, and the weighting equation is derived using the law of error propagation. We also investigate the linearization errors using existing gravity field models and find that this error can be ignored since the used a-priori model EIGEN-5C is sufficiently accurate. One problem when using this approach is that it needs all six independent gravitational gradients (GGs), but the components \(V_{xy}\) and \(V_{yz}\) of GOCE are worse due to the non-sensitive axes of the GOCE gradiometer. Therefore, we use synthetic GGs for both inaccurate gravitational gradient components derived from the a-priori gravity field model EIGEN-5C. Another problem is that the GOCE GGs are measured in a band-limited manner. Therefore, a forward and backward finite impulse response band-pass filter is applied to the data, which can also eliminate filter caused phase change. The spherical cap regularization approach (SCRA) and the Kaula rule are then applied to solve the polar gap problem caused by GOCE’s inclination of \(96.7^{\circ }\). With the techniques described above, a degree/order 240 gravity field model called IGGT_R1 is computed. Since the synthetic components of \(V_{xy}\) and \(V_{yz}\) are not band-pass filtered, the signals outside the measurement bandwidth are replaced by the a-priori model EIGEN-5C. Therefore, this model is practically a combined gravity field model which contains GOCE GGs signals and long wavelength signals from the a-priori model EIGEN-5C. Finally, IGGT_R1’s accuracy is evaluated by comparison with other gravity field models in terms of difference degree amplitudes, the geostrophic velocity in the Agulhas current area, gravity anomaly differences as well as by comparison to GNSS/leveling data.     

Regularization of geopotential determination from satellite data by variance components

 Different types of present or future satellite data have to be combined by applying appropriate weighting for the determination of the gravity field of the Earth, for instance GPS observations for CHAMP with satellite to satellite tracking for the coming mission GRACE as well as gradiometer measurements for GOCE. In addition, the estimate of the geopotential has to be smoothed or regularized because of the inversion problem. It is proposed to solve these two tasks by Bayesian inference on variance components. The estimates of the variance components are computed by a stochastic estimator of the traces of matrices connected with the inverse of the matrix of normal equations, thus leading to a new method for determining variance components for large linear systems. The posterior density function for the variance components, weighting factors and regularization parameters are given in order to compute the confidence intervals for these quantities. Test computations with simulated gradiometer observations for GOCE and satellite to satellite tracking for GRACE show the validity of the approach. Received: 5 June 2001 / Accepted: 28 November 2001     

Methodology and use of tensor invariants for satellite gravity gradiometry

Although its use is widespread in several other scientific disciplines, the theory of tensor invariants is only marginally adopted in gravity field modeling. We aim to close this gap by developing and applying the invariants approach for geopotential recovery. Gravitational tensor invariants are deduced from products of second-order derivatives of the gravitational potential. The benefit of the method presented arises from its independence of the gradiometer instrument’s orientation in space. Thus, we refrain from the classical methods for satellite gravity gradiometry analysis, i.e., in terms of individual gravity gradients, in favor of the alternative invariants approach. The invariants approach requires a tailored processing strategy. Firstly, the non-linear functionals with regard to the potential series expansion in spherical harmonics necessitates the linearization and iterative solution of the resulting least-squares problem. From the computational point of view, efficient linearization by means of perturbation theory has been adopted. It only requires the computation of reference gravity gradients. Secondly, the deduced pseudo-observations are composed of all the gravitational tensor elements, all of which require a comparable level of accuracy. Additionally, implementation of the invariants method for large data sets is a challenging task. We show the fundamentals of tensor invariants theory adapted to satellite gradiometry. With regard to the GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite gradiometry mission, we demonstrate that the iterative parameter estimation process converges within only two iterations. Additionally, for the GOCE configuration, we show the invariants approach to be insensitive to the synthesis of unobserved gravity gradients.     

Validation of GOCE gravity field models by means of orbit residuals and geoid comparisons

Three GOCE-based gravity field solutions have been computed by ESA’s high-level processing facility and were released to the user community. All models are accompanied by variance-covariance information resulting either from the least squares procedure or a Monte-Carlo approach. In order to obtain independent external quality parameters and to assess the current performance of these models, a set of independent tests based on satellite orbit determination and geoid comparisons is applied. Both test methods can be regarded as complementary because they either investigate the performance in the long wavelength spectral domain (orbit determination) or in the spatial domain (geoid comparisons). The test procedure was applied to the three GOCE gravity field solutions and to a number of selected pre-launch models for comparison. Orbit determination results suggest, that a pure GOCE gravity field model does not outperform the multi-year GRACE gravity field solutions. This was expected as GOCE is designed to improve the determination of the medium to high frequencies of the Earth gravity field (in the range of degree and order 50 to 200). Nevertheless, in case of an optimal combination of GOCE and GRACE data, orbit determination results should not deteriorate. So this validation procedure can also be used for testing the optimality of the approach adopted for producing combined GOCE and GRACE models. Results from geoid comparisons indicate that with the 2 months of GOCE data a significant improvement in the determination of the spherical harmonic spectrum of the global gravity field between degree 50 and 200 can be reached. Even though the ultimate mission goal has not yet been reached, especially due to the limited time span of used GOCE data (only 2 months), it was found that existing satellite-only gravity field models, which are based on 7 years of GRACE data, can already be enhanced in terms of spatial resolution. It is expected that with the accumulation of more GOCE data the gravity field model resolution and quality can be further enhanced, and the GOCE mission goal of 1–2 cm geoid accuracy with 100 km spatial resolution can be achieved.