Preliminary GRACE-FO gravity field solutions from Tongji University

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiujie Chen ◽  
Yunzhong Shen ◽  
Xingfu Zhang ◽  
Jürgen Kusche
Keyword(s):  
Mass Transport ◽  
Gravity Field ◽  
Sampling Rate ◽  
Laser Ranging ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
Gravity Field Determination ◽  
New Feature ◽  
Gravity Recovery ◽  
Grace Mission ◽  
Tongji University

<p>Due to the battery issue, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission unfortunately came to an end in October 2017 after providing more than 15 years of mass transport information of our changing planet. To continue to monitoring the mass transport in the Earth system, the GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) was launched in May 2018. As a new feature of GRACE-FO, a Laser Ranging Interferometer (LRI) was equipped to measure the inter-satellite range at a nanometer level. Since May 2019, GRACE-FO Level-1B observations have been made available to our community. Using the GRACE-FO Level-1B observations without laser ranging information, preliminary GRACE-FO gravity field solutions from Center for Space Research (CSR), GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Graz University of Technology have been released. Incorporating laser ranging observations into gravity field determination, a preliminary time series of GRACE-FO gravity field solutions has been derived from Tongji University in collaboration with University of Bonn. In this paper, the signal and noise of our gravity field solutions are analyzed and compared to those from other research groups. Our results show that the laser ranging observations with a sampling rate of 2s are able to improve gravity field solutions by about 7% in terms of geoid degree variances up to degree and order 96 as compared to the K-Band ranging data with a sampling rate of 5s.</p>

Results of fusion of LRI based attitude data in the attitude Kalman filter

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujata Goswami ◽  
Tamara Bandikova ◽  
Dah-Ning Yuan ◽  
Samuel Francis ◽  
Bob Spero
Keyword(s):  
Kalman Filter ◽  
Gravity Field ◽  
Beam Steering ◽  
Line Of Sight ◽  
Laser Ranging ◽  
First Results ◽  
Gravity Field Determination ◽  
Gravity Recovery ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Technology Demonstrator

<p>Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) carries the Laser Ranging Interferometer (LRI) as a technology demonstrator that measures the inter-satellite range with nanometer precision. For the precise laser beam pointing, LRI uses the beam steering method where the fast steering mirror is actuated to correct for the misalignment between the incoming and outgoing laser beams. From the fast steering mirror commands, we can compute the inter-satellite pitch and yaw angles. These angles are provided as LSM1B product and represent spacecraft's relative orientation with respect to line-of-sight (LOS). The SCA1B data, which is computed by combining the data of three star cameras and IMU in the Kalman filter, represents the absolute orientation of the spacecrafts. Currently, this SCA1B product is used in the gravity field determination.  </p> <p>Here we present first results of a new attitude product which is computed by the combination of fast steering mirror data with the star cameras and IMU in the attitude kalman filter.  We also present the impact of this new combined attitude data on the gravity field solutions.</p>

scholarly journals SLR, GRACE and Swarm Gravity Field Determination and Combination

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 956 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Meyer ◽  
Krzysztof Sosnica ◽  
Daniel Arnold ◽  
Christoph Dahle ◽  
Daniela Thaller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Transport ◽  
Gravity Field ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Mass Gain ◽  
Normal Equation ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Swarm Satellites ◽  
Gravity Fields ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Gravity Field Determination

Satellite gravimetry allows for determining large scale mass transport in the system Earth and to quantify ice mass change in polar regions. We provide, evaluate and compare a long time-series of monthly gravity field solutions derived either by satellite laser ranging (SLR) to geodetic satellites, by GPS and K-band observations of the GRACE mission, or by GPS observations of the three Swarm satellites. While GRACE provides gravity signal at the highest spatial resolution, SLR sheds light on mass transport in polar regions at larger scales also in the pre- and post-GRACE era. To bridge the gap between GRACE and GRACE Follow-On, we also derive monthly gravity fields using Swarm data and perform a combination with SLR. To correctly take all correlations into account, this combination is performed on the normal equation level. Validating the Swarm/SLR combination against GRACE during the overlapping period January 2015 to June 2016, the best fit is achieved when down-weighting Swarm compared to the weights determined by variance component estimation. While between 2014 and 2017 SLR alone slightly overestimates mass loss in Greenland compared to GRACE, the combined gravity fields match significantly better in the overlapping time period and the RMS of the differences is reduced by almost 100 Gt. After 2017, both SLR and Swarm indicate moderate mass gain in Greenland.

scholarly journals Combination Analysis of Future Polar-Type Gravity Mission and GRACE Follow-On

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yufeng Nie ◽  
Yunzhong Shen ◽  
Qiujie Chen
Keyword(s):  
Mass Transport ◽  
Gravity Field ◽  
Combined Model ◽  
Low Latitude ◽  
Orbit Inclination ◽  
Field Estimation ◽  
One Year ◽  
Polar Type ◽  
Gravity Recovery ◽  
Gravity Mission

Thanks to the unprecedented success of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), its successive mission GRACE Follow-On (GFO) has been in orbit since May 2018 to continue measuring the Earth’s mass transport. In order to possibly enhance GFO in terms of mass transport estimates, four orbit configurations of future polar-type gravity mission (FPG) (with the same payload accuracy and orbit parameters as GRACE, but differing in orbit inclination) are investigated by full-scale simulations in both standalone and jointly with GFO. The results demonstrate that the retrograde orbit modes used in FPG are generally superior to prograde in terms of gravity field estimation in the case of a joint GFO configuration. Considering the FPG’s independent capability, the orbit configurations with 89- and 91-degree inclinations (namely FPG-89 and FPG-91) are further analyzed by joint GFO monthly gravity field models over the period of one-year. Our analyses show that the FPG-91 basically outperforms the FPG-89 in mass change estimates, especially at the medium- and low-latitude regions. Compared to GFO & FPG-89, about 22% noise reduction over the ocean area and 17% over land areas are achieved by the GFO & FPG-91 combined model. Therefore, the FPG-91 is worthy to be recommended for the further orbit design of FPGs.

scholarly journals The Intriguing Structure of Stripes in GRACE Geopotential Models

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 4362
Author(s):  
Spiros Pagiatakis ◽  
Athina Peidou
Keyword(s):  
Sampling Rate ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Disturbing Potential ◽  
Geopotential Models ◽  
Simple Simulation ◽  
Low Degree ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Gravity Recovery ◽  
Grace Mission ◽  
Level 2

Geopotential models derived from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission measurements are significantly obscured by the presence of a systematic artifact, known as longitudinal stripes. Based on our previous work (Peidou and Pagiatakis, 2020) we provide an in-depth analysis of the latitudinal sampling characteristics of GRACE and we reveal the intriguing sampling mechanism that creates sub-Nyquist artifacts (stripes). Because the sub-Nyquist artifacts are poorly understood, we provide a simple simulation example to elucidate the mechanism of the sub-Nyquist artifact generation. Subsequently, we randomly select June 2009 daily GPS precise science orbits for GRACE-A to produce ground tracks to sample the low frequency disturbing potential (geoid) along the parallel of ϕ=10° N. The sampled geoid is then deinterlaced in space to produce a monthly data sequence whose detailed analysis shows that the sub-Nyquist artifacts (stripes) are produced from a critical sampling rate of the low degree gravitational field that is related to the ratio m/n of two mutually prime integers, where m is the number of days it takes to have a nearly repeat orbit and n is the number of complete orbits in one day. We perform extensive analyses of GRACE Level-2 data over a period of eight years to show the variability in the orbital characteristics that are directly linked to the orbit resonances (via integers m and n). It turns out that during short repeat cycle resonances the stripes are amplified. Finally, to minimize the presence of stripes in Level-2 data products, it is recommended that orbits of future missions should be designed to avoid the critical m/n ratios while appropriately monitoring and adjusting them during the mission. For completed missions, or missions that are already active, force modelling the latitudinal low frequency disturbing potential may be a viable and most preferred approach to filtering.

scholarly journals Benchmark data for verifying background model implementations in orbit and gravity field determination software

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Lasser ◽  
Torsten Mayer-Gürr ◽  
Andreas Kvas ◽  
Igor Koch ◽  
Jean-Michel Lemoine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Field ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Benchmark Data ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
Gravity Fields ◽  
Gravity Field Determination ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Correct Application ◽  
University Of Bern ◽  
The Cost

<div>In the framework of the COmbination Service of Time-variable Gravity fields (COST-G) gravity field solutions from different analysis centres are combined to provide a consolidated solution of improved quality to the user. As in many other satellite-related sciences, the correct application of background models plays a crucial role in gravity field determination. Therefore, we publish a set of data of various commonly used forces in orbit and gravity field modelling (gravity field, tides etc.) evaluated along a one day orbit arc of GRACE, together with some additional data to enable easy comparisons. The benchmark data is compiled with the GROOPS software by the Institute of Geodesy (IfG) at Graz University of Technology. It is intended to be used as a reference and provides the opportunity to test the implementation of these models at various analysis centres. In view of the COST-G GRACE (-FO) gravity field combinations, we show the outcome of such a background force field software validation for the GRACE-SIGMA software of the Leibniz University of Hannover (LUH), the GRGS GINS software, EPOS of the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) and the Bernese GNSS software from AIUB (Astronomical Institute, University of Bern). We consider differences in the force modelling for GRACE (-FO) of one order of magnitude less than the accelerometer noise to be negligible, and make an attempt to quantify and explain differences exceeding this threshold.</div>

scholarly journals Benchmark data for verifying background model implementations in orbit and gravity field determination software

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Martin Lasser ◽  
Ulrich Meyer ◽  
Adrian Jäggi ◽  
Torsten Mayer-Gürr ◽  
Andreas Kvas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Field ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Benchmark Data ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
Gravity Field Determination ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Correct Application ◽  
University Of Bern ◽  
The Cost

Abstract. In the framework of the COmbination Service for Time-variable Gravity fields (COST-G) gravity field solutions from different analysis centres are combined to provide a consolidated solution of improved quality and robustness to the user. As in many other satellite-related sciences, the correct application of background models plays a crucial role in gravity field determination. Therefore, we publish a set of data of various commonly used forces in orbit and gravity field modelling (Earth's gravity field, tides etc.) evaluated along a one day orbit arc of GRACE, together with auxiliary data to enable easy comparisons. The benchmark data is compiled with the GROOPS software by the Institute of Geodesy (IfG) at Graz University of Technology. It is intended to be used as a reference data set and provides the opportunity to test the implementation of these models at various institutions involved in orbit and gravity field determination from satellite tracking data. In view of the COST-G GRACE and GRACE Follow-On gravity field combinations, we document the outcome of the comparison of the background force models for the Bernese GNSS software from AIUB (Astronomical Institute, University of Bern), the EPOS software of the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), the GINS software, developed and maintained by the Groupe de Recherche de Géodésie Spatiale (GRGS), the GRACE-SIGMA software of the Leibniz University of Hannover (LUH) and the GRASP software also developed at LUH. We consider differences in the force modelling for GRACE (-FO) which are one order of magnitude smaller than the accelerometer noise of about 10−10 m s−2 to be negligible and formulate this as a benchmark for new analysis centres, which are interested to contribute to the COST-G initiative.

scholarly journals Study of water storage variations at the Pantanal wetlands area from GRACE monthly mass grids

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-143
Author(s):  
Ayelen Pereira ◽  
Cecilia Cornero ◽  
Ana C. O. C. Matos ◽  
M. Cristina Pacino ◽  
Denizar Blitzkow
Keyword(s):  
Water Mass ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Transport Processes ◽  
Satellite Gravity ◽  
The North ◽  
Paraguay River ◽  
Gravity Recovery ◽  
Grace Mission ◽  
Phase Differences

Abstract The continental water storage is significantly in-fluenced by wetlands, which are highly affected by climate change and anthropogenic influences. The Pantanal, located in the Paraguay river basin, is one of the world’s largest and most important wetlands because of the environmental biodiversity that represents. The satellite gravity mission GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) provided until 2017 time-variable Earth’s gravity field models that reflected the variations due to mass transport processes-like continental water storage changes-which allowed to study environments such as wetlands, at large spatial scales. The water storage variations for the period 2002-2016, by using monthly land water mass grids of Total Water Storage (TWS) derived from GRACE solutions, were evaluated in the Pantanal area. The capability of the GRACE mission for monitoring this particular environment is analyzed, and the comparison of the water mass changes with rainfall and hydrometric heights data at different stations distributed over the Pantanal region was carried out. Additionally, the correlation between the TWS and river gauge measurements, and the phase differences for these variables, were also evaluated. Results show two distinct zones: high correlations and low phase shifts at the north, and smaller correlation values and consequently significant phase differences towards the south. This situation is mainly related to the hydrogeological domains of the area.

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.

GRACE Follow-On Gravity Field Recovery from Combined Laser Ranging Interferometer and Microwave Ranging System Measurements

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saniya Behzadpour ◽  
Andreas Kvas ◽  
Torsten Mayer-Gürr
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Field ◽  
Laser Ranging ◽  
Measurement Technology ◽  
Additional Measurement ◽  
Covariance Functions ◽  
Gravity Field Recovery ◽  
Global Gravity ◽  
Least Squares Adjustment ◽  
Noise Covariance ◽  
Component Estimation

<p>Besides a K-Band Ranging System (KBR), GRACE-FO carries a Laser Ranging Interferometer (LRI) as a technology demonstration to provide measurements of inter-satellite range changes. This additional measurement technology provides supplementary observations, which allow for cross-instrument diagnostics with the KBR system and, to some extent, the separation of ranging noise from other sources such as noise in the on-board accelerometer (ACC) measurements.</p><p>The aim of this study is to incorporate the two ranging systems (LRI and KBR) observations in ITSG-Grace2018 gravity field recovery. The two observation groups are combined in an iterative least-squares adjustment with variance component estimation used to determine the unknown noise covariance functions for KBR, LRI, and ACC measurements. We further compare the gravity field solutions obtained from the combined solutions to KBR-only results and discuss the differences with a focus on the global gravity field and LRI calibration parameters.</p>

Preliminary monthly gravity field models from kinematic orbits of SWARM Satellites

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingfu Zhang ◽  
Qiujie Chen ◽  
Yunzhong Shen
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Field ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Earth System ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Swarm Satellites ◽  
Variable Gravity ◽  
Data Gap ◽  
One Year ◽  
Gravity Recovery ◽  
Gravity Field Models

<p>      Although the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-On (GRACE FO) satellite missions play an important role in monitoring global mass changes within the Earth system, there is a data gap of about one year spanning July 2017 to May 2018, which leads to discontinuous gravity observations for monitoring global mass changes. As an alternative mission, the SWARM satellites can provide gravity observations to close this data gap. In this paper, we are dedicated to developing alternative monthly time-variable gravity field solutions from SWARM data. Using kinematic orbits of SWARM from ITSG for the period January 2015 to September 2020, we have generated a preliminary time series of monthly gravity field models named Tongji-Swarm2019 up to degree and order 60. The comparisons between Tongji-Swarm2019 and GRACE/GRACE-FO monthly solutions show that Tongji-Swarm2019 solutions agree with GRACE/GRACE-FO models in terms of large-scale mass change signals over amazon, Greenland and other regions. We can conclude that Tongji-Swarm2019 monthly gravity field models are able to close the gap between GRACE and GRACE FO.</p>

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