Gravity Field Recovery from GRACE: Unique Aspects of the High Precision Inter-Satellite Data and Analysis Methods

The very high accuracy of the Doppler and range measurements between the two low-flying and co-orbiting spacecraft of the GRACE mission, which will be at the μm/sec and ≈10 μm levels respectively, requires that special procedures be applied in the processing of these data. Parts of the existing orbit determination and gravity field parameters retrieval methods and software must be modified in order to fully benefit from the capabilities of this mission. This is being done in the following areas: (i) numerical integration of the equations of motion (summed form, accuracy of the predictor-corrector loop, Encke's formulation): (ii) special inter-satellite dynamical parameterization for very short arcs; (iii) accurate solution of large least-squares problems (normal equations vs. orthogonal decomposition of observation equations); (iv) handling the observation equations with high accuracy. Theoretical concepts and first tests of some of the newly implemented algorithms are presented. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Global Gravity Field Recovery Using Solely GPS Tracking and Accelerometer Data from Champ

A new long-wavelength global gravity field model, called EIGEN-1, has been derived in a joint German-French effort from orbit perturbations of the CHAMP satellite, exploiting CHAMP-GPS satellite-to-satellite tracking and on-board accelerometer data over a three months time span. For the first time it becomes possible to recover the gravity field from one satellite only. Thanks to CHAMP'S tailored orbit characteristics and dedicated instrumentation, providing continuous tracking and on-orbit measurements of non-gravitational satellite accelerations, the three months CHAMP-only solution provides the geoid and gravity with an accuracy of 20 cm and 1 mgal, respectively, at a half wavelength resolution of 550 km, which is already an improvement by a factor of two compared to any pre-CHAMP satellite-only gravity field model. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.