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。     

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).     

Monitoring GOCE gradiometer calibration parameters using accelerometer and star sensor data: methodology and first results

The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite, launched on 17 March 2009, is designed to measure the Earth’s mean gravity field with unprecedented accuracy at spatial resolutions down to 100?km. The accurate calibration of the gravity gradiometer on-board GOCE is of utmost importance for achieving the mission goals. ESA’s baseline method for the calibration uses star sensor and accelerometer data of a dedicated calibration procedure, which is executed every 2?months. In this paper, we describe a method for monitoring the evolution of calibration parameter during that time. The method works with star sensor and accelerometer data and does not require gravity field models, which distinguishes it from other existing methods. We present time series of calibration parameters estimated from GOCE data from 1 November 2009 to 17 May 2010. The time series confirm drifts in the calibration parameters that are present in the results of other methods, including ESA’s baseline method. Although these drifts are very small, they degrade the gravity gradients, leading to the conclusion that the calibration parameters of the ESA’s baseline method need to be linearly interpolated. Further, we find a correction of ?36 × 10^?6 for one calibration parameter (in-line differential scale factor of the cross-track gradiometer arm), which improves the gravity gradient performance. The results are validated by investigating the trace of the calibrated gravity gradients and comparing calibrated gravity gradients with reference gradients computed along the GOCE orbit using the ITG-Grace-2010s gravity field model.     

联合GOCE卫星数据和GRACE法方程确定SWJTU-GOGR01S全球重力场模型

联合地球重力场和海洋环流探测器（Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer,GOCE）和重力恢复与气候实验（Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment,GRACE）卫星观测数据确定全球静态重力场模型是当前大地测量学的研究热点之一。联合近3 a的GOCE卫星梯度数据和7 a左右的GRACE星间距离变率数据计算的ITG-GRACE2010S模型的法方程恢复了210阶次的重力场模型SWJTU-GOGR01S。采用带通数字滤波方法处理GOCE卫星的4个高精度梯度观测分量,利用梯度数据恢复重力场模型的观测方程直接建立在梯度仪坐标系中,可以避免坐标转换过程中高精度的梯度观测分量受低精度分量的影响;联合法方程解的最优权采用方差分量估计迭代计算,GOCE数据的两极空白引起的病态问题采用Kaula正则化方法进行约束。基于EIGEN-6C2模型和北美地区的GPS水准网观测数据,对SWJTU-GOGR01S模型进行内外符合精度分析,结果表明,SWJTU-GOGR01S模型在210阶次的大地水准面误差和累计误差分别为1.3 cm和5.7 cm,精度与欧洲空间局公布的第四代时域法模型相当,略优于GOCO02S和GOCO03S模型的精度。     

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.     

GPS-based precise orbit determination of the very low Earth-orbiting gravity mission GOCE

 A prerequisite for the success of future gravity missions like the European Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) is a precise orbit determination (POD). A detailed simulation study has been carried out to assess the achievable orbit accuracy based on satellite-to-satellite tracking (SST) by the US global positioning system (GPS) and in conjunction the implications for gravity field determination. An orbit accuracy at the few centimeter level seems possible, sufficient to support the GOCE gravity mission and in particular its gravity gradiometer. Received: 21 January 2000 / Accepted: 4 July 2000     

GOCE引力梯度内部校准方法

GOCE卫星引力梯度仪的精确校准是反演高精度重力场的前提之一,本文利用GOCE卫星L1b数据中的引力梯度仪及恒星敏感器数据实现了卫星引力梯度的内部校准。以最小二乘联合多个恒星敏感器观测数据确定内部校准使用的角速度,有效避免了单个恒星敏感器低精度角速度分量对坐标转换过程的影响。考虑到恒星敏感器坐标系与梯度仪坐标系间旋转矩阵随时间的变化,本文在ESA官方内部校准方法的基础上,提出了顾及旋转矩阵校准参数的内部校准模型,并利用2009年11月的GOCE实测数据验证了该方法的效果。结果表明,该旋转矩阵校准参数数值约100″,且在该月存在3″~30″的漂移;与GOCE官方内部校准方法对比,从卫星引力梯度精度结果来看,在低于0.005 Hz频段内,同时解算旋转矩阵的校准参数与梯度仪内3个加速度计对的校准参数的内部校准模型优于仅考虑加速度计对校准参数的模型;除此之外,本文讨论了以该模型为基础的GOCE梯度仪数据校准的可能方法,为GOCE及后续重力卫星的数据处理工作提供参考。     

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。     

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.     

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。     

Assessment of observing time-variable gravity from GOCE GPS and accelerometer observations

An assessment has been made of the possibility to estimate time-variable gravity from GPS-derived orbit perturbations and common-mode accelerometer observations of ESA’s GOCE Earth Explorer. A number of 20-day time series of Earth’s global long-wavelength gravity field have been derived for the period November 2009 to November 2012 using different parameter setups and estimation techniques. These techniques include a conventional approach where for each period, one set of gravity coefficients is estimated, either excluding or including empirical accelerations, and the so-called Wiese approach where higher frequency coefficients are estimated for the very long wavelengths. A principal component analysis of especially the time series of gravity field coefficients obtained by the Wiese approach and the conventional approach with empirical accelerations reveals an annual signal. When fitting this annual signal directly through the time series, the sine component (maximum in spring) displays features that are similar to well-known continental hydrological mass changes for the low latitude areas, such as mass variations in the Amazon basin, Africa and Australia for spatial scales down to 1,500 km. The cosine component (maximum in winter), however, displays large signals that can not be attributed to actual mass variations in the Earth system. The estimated gravity field changes from GOCE orbit perturbations are likely affected by missing GPS observations in case of high ionospheric perturbations during periods of increased solar activity, which is minimal in Summer and maximal towards the end of autumn.     

GOCE: precise orbit determination for the entire mission

The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) was the first Earth explorer core mission of the European Space Agency. It was launched on March 17, 2009 into a Sun-synchronous dusk-dawn orbit and re-entered into the Earth’s atmosphere on November 11, 2013. The satellite altitude was between 255 and 225 km for the measurement phases. The European GOCE Gravity consortium is responsible for the Level 1b to Level 2 data processing in the frame of the GOCE High-level processing facility (HPF). The Precise Science Orbit (PSO) is one Level 2 product, which was produced under the responsibility of the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern within the HPF. This PSO product has been continuously delivered during the entire mission. Regular checks guaranteed a high consistency and quality of the orbits. A correlation between solar activity, GPS data availability and quality of the orbits was found. The accuracy of the kinematic orbit primarily suffers from this. Improvements in modeling the range corrections at the retro-reflector array for the SLR measurements were made and implemented in the independent SLR validation for the GOCE PSO products. The satellite laser ranging (SLR) validation finally states an orbit accuracy of 2.42 cm for the kinematic and 1.84 cm for the reduced-dynamic orbits over the entire mission. The common-mode accelerations from the GOCE gradiometer were not used for the official PSO product, but in addition to the operational HPF work a study was performed to investigate to which extent common-mode accelerations improve the reduced-dynamic orbit determination results. The accelerometer data may be used to derive realistic constraints for the empirical accelerations estimated for the reduced-dynamic orbit determination, which already improves the orbit quality. On top of that the accelerometer data may further improve the orbit quality if realistic constraints and state-of-the-art background models such as gravity field and ocean tide models are used for the reduced-dynamic orbit determination.     

GOCE卫星重力梯度数据反演重力场的滤波器设计与比较分析

地球重力场和海洋环流探测（gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer,GOCE）卫星重力梯度数据有色噪声和低频系统误差的滤波处理是反演高精度地球重力场的一个关键问题。针对GOCE卫星重力梯度数据的滤波处理,基于移动平均（moving average,MA）方法和CPR(circle per revolution)经验参数方法设计了两类低频系统误差滤波器,并分别将这两类滤波器与基于自回归移动平均（auto-regressive and moving average,ARMA）模型设计的有色噪声滤波器组合起来形成级联滤波器。为了分析滤波器处理的实际效果,基于空域最小二乘法采用70 d的GOCE观测数据,并联合重力恢复与气候实验（gravity recovery and climate experiment,GRACE）数据分别反演了224阶次的重力场模型GOGR-MA(MA+ARMA级联滤波)和GOGR-CPR(CPR+ARMA级联滤波)。将反演模型与采用同期数据求解的第一代GOCE系列模型及GOCE和GRACE联合模...     

Mission design,operation and exploitation of the gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer mission

The European Space Agency’s Gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer mission (GOCE) was launched on 17 March 2009. As the first of the Earth Explorer family of satellites within the Agency’s Living Planet Programme, it is aiming at a better understanding of the Earth system. The mission objective of GOCE is the determination of the Earth’s gravity field and geoid with high accuracy and maximum spatial resolution. The geoid, combined with the de facto mean ocean surface derived from twenty-odd years of satellite radar altimetry, yields the global dynamic ocean topography. It serves ocean circulation and ocean transport studies and sea level research. GOCE geoid heights allow the conversion of global positioning system (GPS) heights to high precision heights above sea level. Gravity anomalies and also gravity gradients from GOCE are used for gravity-to-density inversion and in particular for studies of the Earth’s lithosphere and upper mantle. GOCE is the first-ever satellite to carry a gravitational gradiometer, and in order to achieve its challenging mission objectives the satellite embarks a number of world-first technologies. In essence the spacecraft together with its sensors can be regarded as a spaceborne gravimeter. In this work, we describe the mission and the way it is operated and exploited in order to make available the best-possible measurements of the Earth gravity field. The main lessons learned from the first 19 months in orbit are also provided, in as far as they affect the quality of the science data products and therefore are of specific interest for GOCE data users.     

Alternative method for angular rate determination within the GOCE gradiometer processing

The most crucial part of the GOCE gradiometer processing is, besides the internal calibration of the gradiometer, the determination of the satellite’s inertial angular rate. This paper describes a new method for the angular rate determination. It is based on the stochastic properties of the GOCE star sensors and the gradiometer. The attitude information of both instrument types is combined at the level of angular rates. The combination is done in the spectral domain by Wiener filtering, and thus using an optimal relative weighting of the star sensor and gradiometer attitude information. Since the complete processing chain from raw measurements to gravity field solutions is performed, the results are not only analyzed at the level of gravity gradients, but also of gravity field solutions. Compared to the nominal method, already the resulting gravity gradients show a significantly improved performance for the frequencies (mainly) below the gradiometer measurement bandwidth. This can be verified by analysis of the gravity gradient trace. The improvement is propagated to the level of gravity field models, where a better accuracy can be observed for selected groups of coefficients at characteristic bands at orders k × 16, with integer k, up to high harmonic degrees.     

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.     

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.     

GOCE gravitational gradients along the orbit

GOCE is ESA’s gravity field mission and the first satellite ever that measures gravitational gradients in space, that is, the second spatial derivatives of the Earth’s gravitational potential. The goal is to determine the Earth’s mean gravitational field with unprecedented accuracy at spatial resolutions down to 100 km. GOCE carries a gravity gradiometer that allows deriving the gravitational gradients with very high precision to achieve this goal. There are two types of GOCE Level 2 gravitational gradients (GGs) along the orbit: the gravitational gradients in the gradiometer reference frame (GRF) and the gravitational gradients in the local north oriented frame (LNOF) derived from the GGs in the GRF by point-wise rotation. Because the V _XX , V _YY , V _ZZ and V _XZ are much more accurate than V _XY and V _YZ , and because the error of the accurate GGs increases for low frequencies, the rotation requires that part of the measured GG signal is replaced by model signal. However, the actual quality of the gradients in GRF and LNOF needs to be assessed. We analysed the outliers in the GGs, validated the GGs in the GRF using independent gravity field information and compared their assessed error with the requirements. In addition, we compared the GGs in the LNOF with state-of-the-art global gravity field models and determined the model contribution to the rotated GGs. We found that the percentage of detected outliers is below 0.1% for all GGs, and external gravity data confirm that the GG scale factors do not differ from one down to the 10⁻³ level. Furthermore, we found that the error of V _XX and V _YY is approximately at the level of the requirement on the gravitational gradient trace, whereas the V _ZZ error is a factor of 2–3 above the requirement for higher frequencies. We show that the model contribution in the rotated GGs is 2–35% dependent on the gravitational gradient. Finally, we found that GOCE gravitational gradients and gradients derived from EIGEN-5C and EGM2008 are consistent over the oceans, but that over the continents the consistency may be less, especially in areas with poor terrestrial gravity data. All in all, our analyses show that the quality of the GOCE gravitational gradients is good and that with this type of data valuable new gravity field information is obtained.     

A parametric study on the impact of satellite attitude errors on GOCE gravity field recovery

In the recent design of the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite mission, the gravity gradients are defined in the gradiometer reference frame (GRF), which deviates from the actual flight direction (local orbit reference frame, LORF) by up to 3–4°. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of uncertainties in the knowledge of the gradiometer orientation due to attitude reconstitution errors on the gravity field solution. In the framework of several numerical simulations, which are based on a realistic mission configuration, different scenarios are investigated, to provide the accuracy requirements of the orientation information. It turns out that orientation errors have to be seriously considered, because they may represent a significant error component of the gravity field solution. While in a realistic mission scenario (colored gradiometer noise) the gravity field solutions are quite insensitive to small orientation biases, random noise applied to the attitude information can have a considerable impact on the accuracy of the resolved gravity field models.     

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.