Time Variable Gravity: Contributions of GOCE Satellite Data to Monthly and Bi-monthly GRACE Gravity Field Estimates

2014 ◽  
pp. 35-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Rexer ◽  
Roland Pail ◽  
Thomas Fecher ◽  
Ulrich Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Field ◽  
Satellite Data ◽  
Time Variable ◽  
Time Variable Gravity ◽  
Variable Gravity ◽  
Goce Satellite

scholarly journals Earth’s Time-Variable Gravity from GRACE Follow-On K-Band Range-Rates and Pseudo-Observed Orbits

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1766
Author(s):  
Igor Koch ◽  
Mathias Duwe ◽  
Jakob Flury ◽  
Akbar Shabanloui
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Field ◽  
Time Variable ◽  
Time Variable Gravity ◽  
Gravity Field Recovery ◽  
Variable Gravity ◽  
Earth’S System ◽  
Grace Mission ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
K Band

During its science phase from 2002–2017, the low-low satellite-to-satellite tracking mission Gravity Field Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) provided an insight into Earth’s time-variable gravity (TVG). The unprecedented quality of gravity field solutions from GRACE sensor data improved the understanding of mass changes in Earth’s system considerably. Monthly gravity field solutions as the main products of the GRACE mission, published by several analysis centers (ACs) from Europe, USA and China, became indispensable products for quantifying terrestrial water storage, ice sheet mass balance and sea level change. The successor mission GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) was launched in May 2018 and proceeds observing Earth’s TVG. The Institute of Geodesy (IfE) at Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) is one of the most recent ACs. The purpose of this article is to give a detailed insight into the gravity field recovery processing strategy applied at LUH; to compare the obtained gravity field results to the gravity field solutions of other established ACs; and to compare the GRACE-FO performance to that of the preceding GRACE mission in terms of post-fit residuals. We use the in-house-developed MATLAB-based GRACE-SIGMA software to compute unconstrained solutions based on the generalized orbit determination of 3 h arcs. K-band range-rates (KBRR) and kinematic orbits are used as (pseudo)-observations. A comparison of the obtained solutions to the results of the GRACE-FO Science Data System (SDS) and Combination Service for Time-variable Gravity Fields (COST-G) ACs, reveals a competitive quality of our solutions. While the spectral and spatial noise levels slightly differ, the signal content of the solutions is similar among all ACs. The carried out comparison of GRACE and GRACE-FO KBRR post-fit residuals highlights an improvement of the GRACE-FO K-band ranging system performance. The overall amplitude of GRACE-FO post-fit residuals is about three times smaller, compared to GRACE. GRACE-FO post-fit residuals show less systematics, compared to GRACE. Nevertheless, the power spectral density of GRACE-FO and GRACE post-fit residuals is dominated by similar spikes located at multiples of the orbital and daily frequencies. To our knowledge, the detailed origin of these spikes and their influence on the gravity field recovery quality were not addressed in any study so far and therefore deserve further attention in the future. Presented results are based on 29 monthly gravity field solutions from June 2018 until December 2020. The regularly updated LUH-GRACE-FO-2020 time series of monthly gravity field solutions can be found on the website of the International Centre for Global Earth Models (ICGEM) and in LUH’s research data repository. These operationally published products complement the time series of the already established ACs and allow for a continuous and independent assessment of mass changes in Earth’s system.

scholarly journals GRACE time-variable gravity field recovery using an improved energy balance approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 203 (3) ◽  
pp. 1773-1786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kun Shang ◽  
Junyi Guo ◽  
C.K. Shum ◽  
Chunli Dai ◽  
Jia Luo
Keyword(s):  
Energy Balance ◽  
Gravity Field ◽  
Time Variable ◽  
Time Variable Gravity ◽  
Gravity Field Recovery ◽  
Balance Approach ◽  
Variable Gravity ◽  
Energy Balance Approach

scholarly journals Time-variable gravity fields and ocean mass change from 37 months of kinematic Swarm orbits

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Lück ◽  
Jürgen Kusche ◽  
Roelof Rietbroek ◽  
Anno Löcher
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Gravity Field ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Time Variable ◽  
Field Analysis ◽  
Time Variable Gravity ◽  
Ocean Mass ◽  
Grace Data ◽  
Swarm Satellites ◽  
Variable Gravity

Abstract. Measuring the spatiotemporal variation of ocean mass allows one to partition volumetric sea level change, sampled by radar altimeters, into a mass-driven and a steric part, the latter being related to ocean heat change and the current Earth’s energy imbalance. Since 2002, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission provides estimates of the Earth’s time-variable gravity field, from which one can derive ocean mass variability. However, GRACE has reached the end of its lifetime with data degradation and several gaps during the last years, and there will be a prolonged gap until the launch of the follow-on mission GRACE-FO. Therefore, efforts focus on generating a long and consistent ocean mass time series by analyzing kinematic orbits from other low-flying satellites; i.e. extending the GRACE time series. Here we utilize data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Swarm Earth Explorer satellites to derive and investigate ocean mass variations. We investigate the potential to bridge the gap between the GRACE missions and to substitute missing monthly solutions. Our monthly Swarm solutions have a root mean square error (RMSE) of 4.0 mm with respect to GRACE, whereas directly estimating trend, annual and semiannual signal terms leads to an RMSE of only 1.7 mm. Concerning monthly gaps, our Swarm solution appears better than interpolating existing GRACE data in 13.5 % of all cases, for 80.0 % of all investigated cases of an 18-months-gap, Swarm ocean mass was found closer to the observed GRACE data compared to interpolated GRACE data. Furthermore, we show that precise modelling of non-gravitational forces acting on the Swarm satellites is the key for reaching these accuracies. Our results have implications for sea level budget studies, but they may also guide further research in gravity field analysis schemes, including non-dedicated satellites.

scholarly journals Simulation of the time-variable gravity field by means of coupled geophysical models

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Th. Gruber ◽  
J. L. Bamber ◽  
M. F. P. Bierkens ◽  
H. Dobslaw ◽  
M. Murböck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Gravity Field ◽  
Mass Distribution ◽  
Time Variable ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Time Variable Gravity ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Gravity Fields ◽  
Variable Gravity

Abstract. Time variable gravity fields, reflecting variations of mass distribution in the system Earth is one of the key parameters to understand the changing Earth. Mass variations are caused either by redistribution of mass in, on or above the Earth's surface or by geophysical processes in the Earth's interior. The first set of observations of monthly variations of the Earth gravity field was provided by the US/German GRACE satellite mission beginning in 2002. This mission is still providing valuable information to the science community. However, as GRACE has outlived its expected lifetime, the geoscience community is currently seeking successor missions in order to maintain the long time series of climate change that was begun by GRACE. Several studies on science requirements and technical feasibility have been conducted in the recent years. These studies required a realistic model of the time variable gravity field in order to perform simulation studies on sensitivity of satellites and their instrumentation. This was the primary reason for the European Space Agency (ESA) to initiate a study on "Monitoring and Modelling individual Sources of Mass Distribution and Transport in the Earth System by Means of Satellites". The goal of this interdisciplinary study was to create as realistic as possible simulated time variable gravity fields based on coupled geophysical models, which could be used in the simulation processes in a controlled environment. For this purpose global atmosphere, ocean, continental hydrology and ice models were used. The coupling was performed by using consistent forcing throughout the models and by including water flow between the different domains of the Earth system. In addition gravity field changes due to solid Earth processes like continuous glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) and a sudden earthquake with co-seismic and post-seismic signals were modelled. All individual model results were combined and converted to gravity field spherical harmonic series, which is the quantity commonly used to describe the Earth's global gravity field. The result of this study is a twelve-year time-series of 6-hourly time variable gravity field spherical harmonics up to degree and order 180 corresponding to a global spatial resolution of 1 degree in latitude and longitude. In this paper, we outline the input data sets and the process of combining these data sets into a coherent model of temporal gravity field changes. The resulting time series was used in some follow-on studies and is available to anybody interested via a Website.

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