scholarly journals Superconducting gravimeter and seismometer shedding light on FG5’s offsets, trends and noise: what observations at Onsala Space Observatory can tell us

2020 ◽  
Vol 94 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Georg Scherneck ◽  
Marcin Rajner ◽  
Andreas Engfeldt

AbstractTen-year worth of absolute gravity (AG) campaigns at Onsala Space Observatory (OSO), Sweden, are simultaneously reduced using synchronous data from a superconducting gravimeter (SG). In this multi-campaign adjustment, the a priori models commonly applied for each setup in AG-alone experiments are sidestepped in favour of SG records and a model to estimate its drift. We obtain a residual (hourly samples) at the 5 nm/s$$^2$$ 2 RMS level, reducing the SG data with a range of ancillary data for the site’s exposure to ocean and atmospheric loading, and hydrology effects. The target quantity in AG projects in the Baltic Shield area is the secular change of gravity dominated by glacial isostatic adjustment with land uplift as its major part. Investigating into the details of the associated processes using AG requires a long-term stable reference, which is the aim of international comparison campaigns of FG5 instruments. Two of these have been campaigning at OSO since 2009 when the SG had been installed. In the simultaneous inversion of all sixteen campaigns, we identify weaknesses of AG observations, like varying systematic offsets over time, excess microseismic sensitivity, trends in the AG data and side effects on the SG’s scale factor when campaigns are evaluated one by one. The simultaneous adjustment afforded us an SG scale factor very near the result from a campaign with a prototype quantum gravimeter. Whence, we propose that single-campaign results may be biased and conjectures into their variation, let alone its causes misleading. The OSO site appears to present manageable problems as far as environmental influences are concerned. Our findings advocate the use of AG instruments and procedures that are more long-term stable (reference realization), more short-term stable too (setup drifts), less service craving and more resilient to microseismic noise.

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Timmen ◽  
A. Engfeldt ◽  
H.-G. Scherneck

AbstractAnnual absolute gravity measurements with a FG5 instrument were performed in Onsala Space Observatory by the Institute of Geodesy of the Leibniz Universität Hannover from 2003 to 2011 and have been continued with the upgraded meter FG5X in 2014. Lantmäteriet, Gävle, with their FG5 absolute gravimeter have visited Onsala since 2007. Because small systematic errors may be inherent in each absolute gravimeter, their measuring level and a resulting bias (offset) between the instruments must be controlled over time by means of inter-comparison. From 2007 to 2014, 8 direct comparisons took place well distributed over the time span. A complete re-processing of the absolute gravity observations with the Hannover instrument has been conducted to improve the reduction of unwanted gravity effects. A new tidal model is based on continuous time series recorded with the GWR superconducting gravimeter at Onsala since 2009. The loading effect of the Kattegat is described with a varying sea bottom pressure (water and air mass load) and has been validated with the continuous gravity measurements. For the land uplift,which is a result of the still ongoing glacial isostatic adjustment in Fennoscandia, a secular gravity trend of −0.22 μGal/yr was obtained with a standard deviation of 0.17 μGal/yr. That indicates a slight uplift but is still not significantly different from zero.


1979 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 321-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Höglund ◽  
J. B. Whiteoak ◽  
F. F. Gardner

A 3 GHz maser from the Onsala Space Observatory, Sweden, is currently at Parkes on a long-term loan basis. So far, it has been used on the 64-m radio telescope for a two-week period of spectral-line observations in February 1979, providing a system sensitivity far superior to that previously available at the same frequency. The observed lines were the ground-state transitions of CH at 3264, 3335 and 3349 MHz, the 211 – 212 transition of H2CS at 3139 MHz, and the 211-212 transition of CH3CHO at 3195 MHz.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Merlet ◽  
Pierre Gillot ◽  
Bing Cheng ◽  
Romain Karcher ◽  
Almazbek Imanaliev ◽  
...  

<p>Atom gravimeters based on atom interferometry offer new measurement capabilities, by combining high sensitivities and accuracies at the best level of a few tens of nm.s<sup>−2</sup> with the possibility to perform continuous measurements. Being absolute meters, their scale factor is accurately determined and do not need calibration. Because of their high sensitivity and low drift, superconducting gravimeters are the key instruments for the continuous monitoring of gravity variations. Nevertheless, being relative meters, they need to be calibrated.</p><p>We revisit a 2015 one month long common view measurement of an absolute cold atom gravimeter (CAG) and a relative iGrav superconducting gravimeter, which we use to investigate the CAG long term stability and calibrate the iGrav scale factor. The initial measurement has already been presented at EGU 2016. Here finalized, we present how it allowed us to push the CAG long-term stability down to the level of 0.5 nm.s<sup>−2</sup>. We investigate the impact of the duration of the measurement on the uncertainty in the determination of the correlation factor and show that it is limited to about 3‰ by the coloured noise of our cold atom gravimeter. A 3-days long measurement session with an additional FG5X absolute gravimeter allows us to directly compare the calibration results obtained with two different absolute meters. Based on our analysis, we expect that with an improvement of its long term stability, the CAG will allow to calibrate the iGrav scale factor to better than the per mille level (1σ level of confidence) after only one-day of concurrent measurements during maximum tidal amplitudes.</p>


2000 ◽  
Vol 52 (11) ◽  
pp. 941-945 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Flores ◽  
L. P. Gradinarsky ◽  
P. Elósegui ◽  
G. Elgered ◽  
J. L. Davis ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Bilker-Koivula ◽  
Jaakko Mäkinen ◽  
Hannu Ruotsalainen ◽  
Jyri Näränen ◽  
Timo Saari

AbstractPostglacial rebound in Fennoscandia causes striking trends in gravity measurements of the area. We present time series of absolute gravity data collected between 1976 and 2019 on 12 stations in Finland with different types of instruments. First, we determine the trends at each station and analyse the effect of the instrument types. We estimate, for example, an offset of 6.8 μgal for the JILAg-5 instrument with respect to the FG5-type instruments. Applying the offsets in the trend analysis strengthens the trends being in good agreement with the NKG2016LU_gdot model of gravity change. Trends of seven stations were found robust and were used to analyse the stabilization of the trends in time and to determine the relationship between gravity change rates and land uplift rates as measured with global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) as well as from the NKG2016LU_abs land uplift model. Trends calculated from combined and offset-corrected measurements of JILAg-5- and FG5-type instruments stabilized in 15 to 20 years and at some stations even faster. The trends of FG5-type instrument data alone stabilized generally within 10 years. The ratio between gravity change rates and vertical rates from different data sets yields values between − 0.206 ± 0.017 and − 0.227 ± 0.024 µGal/mm and axis intercept values between 0.248 ± 0.089 and 0.335 ± 0.136 µGal/yr. These values are larger than previous estimates for Fennoscandia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rüdiger Haas ◽  
Eskil Varenius ◽  
Saho Matsumoto ◽  
Matthias Schartner

AbstractWe present first results for the determination of UT1-UTC using the VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS). During December 2019 through February 2020, a series of 1 h long observing sessions were performed using the VGOS stations at Ishioka in Japan and the Onsala twin telescopes in Sweden. These VGOS-B sessions were observed simultaneously to standard legacy S/X-band Intensive sessions. The VGOS-B data were correlated, post-correlation processed, and analysed at the Onsala Space Observatory. The derived UT1-UTC results were compared to corresponding results from standard legacy S/X-band Intensive sessions (INT1/INT2), as well as to the final values of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Frame Service (IERS), provided in IERS Bulletin B. The VGOS-B series achieves 3–4 times lower formal uncertainties for the UT1-UTC results than standard legacy S/X-band INT series. The RMS agreement w.r.t. to IERS Bulletin B is slightly better for the VGOS-B results than for the simultaneously observed legacy S/X-band INT1 results, and the VGOS-B results have a small bias only with the smallest remaining standard deviation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franck Pereira Dos Santos ◽  
Pierre Vermeulen ◽  
Sylvain Bonvalot ◽  
Germinal Gabalda ◽  
Nicolas Le Moigne ◽  
...  

<p>Since a few years, several laboratories, institutes or organizations through the world have acquired marketed quantum absolute gravimeters AQG developed by Muquans. Among their potentialities, these new generations of instruments are expected to complement the existing capabilities of long term monitoring of the Earth gravity field. A metrological evaluation of their performances for long-term measurements is thus a first step.</p><p>The LNE-SYRTE gravimetry laboratory in the suburb of Paris, has been designed to accommodate other gravimeters for metrological comparisons, tests and calibrations. Instruments of different classes operate in this well characterized laboratory: a laboratory-based absolute cold atom gravimeter (CAG) and a relative superconducting gravimeter iGrav. Both instruments allow for continuous measurements, Accuracy is guaranteed by the CAG and long-term stability by the iGrav.</p><p>We there have performed a more than one-year long measurement session with the initial version of the marketed quantum gravimeter AQG (AQG-A01).</p><p>An improved version of this AQG (AQG-B01) designed for outdoor measurement and recently acquired by RESIF (the French Seismologic and Geodetic Network) has been also implemented to close this session with a last month of simultaneous data recording involving all the instruments. Finally, we also performed supplementary accuracy tests, in particular to evaluate the Coriolis bias of the two AQG commercial sensors.</p><p>The talk will briefly present the different instruments to rapidly focus on the performances of the AQGs and results of the comparisons.</p>


Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 351
Author(s):  
Bruno Zossi ◽  
Hagay Amit ◽  
Mariano Fagre ◽  
Ana G. Elias

We analyze the auroral boundary corrected geomagnetic latitude provided by the Auroral Boundary Index (ABI) database to estimate long-term changes of core origin in the area enclosed by this boundary during 1983–2016. We design a four-step filtering process to minimize the solar contribution to the auroral boundary temporal variation for the northern and southern hemispheres. This process includes filtering geomagnetic and solar activity effects, removal of high-frequency signal, and additional removal of a ~20–30-year dominant solar periodicity. Comparison of our results with the secular change of auroral plus polar cap areas obtained using a simple model of the magnetosphere and a geomagnetic core field model reveals a decent agreement, with area increase/decrease in the southern/northern hemisphere respectively for both observations and model. This encouraging agreement provides observational evidence for the surprising recent decrease of the auroral zone area.


1985 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. Whiteoak ◽  
F. F. Gardner ◽  
Gwenyth A. Manefield ◽  
B. Höglund ◽  
L. E. B. Johansson

SummaryThe Parkes 64-m radio telescope equipped with a 3 GHz maser on loan from the Onsala Space Observatory has been used to observe the three ground-state transitions of CH (at 3264, 3335 and 3349 MHz) towards a total of 74 HII regions, mostly at southern declinations. In this paper the regions and related characteristics are listed, and the CH spectra displayed.


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