<p>Stationary optical clocks show fractional instabilities below 10<sup>-18</sup> when averaged over an hour, and continue to be improved in terms of precision and accuracy, uptime and transportability. The frequency of a clock is affected by the gravitational redshift, and thus depends on the local geopotential; a relative frequency change of 10<sup>-18</sup> corresponds to a geoid height change of about 1 cm. This effect could be exploited for sensing large-scale temporal geopotential changes via a network of clocks distributed at the Earth's surface. The CLOck NETwork Services (CLONETS) project aims to create an ensemble of optical clocks connected across Europe via optical fibre links.<br>A station network spread over Europe, which is already installed in parts, would enable us to determine temporal variations of the Earth's gravity field at time scales of days &#160;and thus provide a new means for validating satellite missions such as GRACE-FO or potential Next Generation Gravity Missions. However, mass changes at the surface of an elastic Earth are accompanied by load-induced height changes, and clocks are sensitive to non-loading e.g. tectonic height changes as well. As a result, local and global mass redistribution as well as local height change will be entangled in clock readings, and very precise&#160; GNSS measurements will be required to separate them.<br>Here, we show through simulations how ice (glacier mass imbalance), hydrology (water storage) and atmosphere (dry and wet air mass) signals over Europe could be observed with the currently proposed/established clock network geometry and how potential extensions can benefit this observability. The importance of collocated GNSS receivers is demonstrated for the sake of signal separation.</p>
Frequency Ratio of Two Optical Clock Transitions inYb+171and Constraints on the Time Variation of Fundamental Constants
