High-resolution GRACE Monthly Gravity Field Solutions Expressed as Geopotential Coefficients

<p>The commonly used filters (e.g. Gaussian smoothing, decorrelation and DDK filtering) applied to GRACE spherical harmonic gravity field solutions generally lead to reduced resolution, signal damping and leakage. This work is dedicated to improving spatial resolution and reducing signal damping by developing a regularization method with spectral constraints to spherical harmonics. Before constructing the spectral constraints, we create spatial constraints over global grids (covering lands, oceans and the boundaries between lands and oceans) from the a priori information of GRACE spherical harmonic models. Since we are solving geopotential coefficients rather than mascon grids, we further transfer the spatial constraints into the spectral domain according to the law of variance-covariance propagation, leading to spectral constraints regarding geopotential coefficients. In our work, the regularization method with spectral constraints was demonstrated to have comparable ability as mascon modelling method to enhance the spatial resolution and signal power besides reducing signal leakage. Applying the presented method with spatial constraints, we produced the first time series of high-resolution gravity field solutions expressed as geopotential coefficients complete to degree and order 180. Our analyses over the global and regional areas show that our high-resolution solutions are in good agreement with CSR and JPL mascon solutions.</p>

Determination of Seasonal Variations of Low-Degree Earth Gravity Field from CHAMP Geometric Orbits

Based on satellite dynamics, 1 year’s CHAMP geometric precise orbit data are used in this paper to fit the satellite orbits by Cowell II numerical integral and partitioned Bayesian least square parameter estimation. Time series of low degree geopotential coefficients and are respectively calculated, which reflects obviously seasonal variations of and . The results / month, /month indicate the geodynamical shape of the earth is getting rounder and rounder and at the same time its pear-shaped component adds gradually.

Simplification of Geopotential Perturbing Force Acting on A Satellite

Simplification of Geopotential Perturbing Force Acting on A SatelliteOne of the aspects of geopotential models is orbit integration of satellites. The geopotential acceleration has the largest influence on a satellite with respect to the other perturbing forces. The equation of motion of satellites is a second-order vector differential equation. These equations are further simplified and developed in this study based on the geopotential force. This new expression is much simpler than the traditional one as it does not derivatives of the associated Legendre functions and the transformations are included in the equations. The maximum degree and order of the geopotential harmonic expansion must be selected prior to the orbit integration purposes. The values of the maximum degree and order of these coefficients depend directly on the satellite's altitude. In this article, behaviour of orbital elements of recent geopotential satellites, such as CHAMP, GRACE and GOCE is considered with respect to the different degree and order of geopotential coefficients. In this case, the maximum degree 116, 109 and 175 were derived for the Earth gravitational field in short arc orbit integration of the CHAMP, GRACE and GOCE, respectively considering millimeter level in perturbations.

The Effect of Polar Gaps on the Solutions of Gradiometric Boundary Value Problems

The Effect of Polar Gaps on the Solutions of Gradiometric Boundary Value ProblemsThe lack of satellite gravity gradiometric data, due to inclined orbit, in the Polar Regions influences the geopotential coefficients obtained from the solutions of gradiometric boundary value problems. This paper investigates the polar gaps effect on these solutions and it presents that the near zero-, first- and second-order geopotential coefficients are weakly determined by the vertical-vertical, vertical-horizontal and horizontal solutions, respectively. Also it shows that the vertical-horizontal solution is more sensitive to the lack of data than the other solutions.