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Calibration of a superconducting gravimeter with an absolute atom gravimeter

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Abstract

We present a 27-day-long common view measurement of an absolute cold atom gravimeter (CAG) and a relative iGrav superconducting gravimeter, which we use to calibrate the iGrav scale factor. This allowed us to push the CAG long-term stability down to the level of 0.5 nm s\(^{-2}\). 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-day-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 (1\(\sigma \) level of confidence) after only 1 day of concurrent measurements for maximum tidal amplitudes.

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Data availability

The superconducting gravimeter data are available on the IGETS database at http://doi.org/10.5880/igets.tr.l1.001; the other data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Notes

  1. doi.org/10.5880/igets.tr.l1.001

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Acknowledgements

This research is carried on within the kNOW and ITOC projects, which acknowledges the financial support of the EMRP. The EMRP was jointly funded by the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP) participating countries within the European Association of National Metrology Institutes (EURAMET) and the European Union. B.C. thanks the Labex First-TF for financial support. This work has been supported by the Paris Île-de-France Région in the framework of DIM SIRTEQ.

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Author notes

  1. Bing Cheng

    Present address: Institute of Optics, The Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Precision Measurement, College of Science, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310023, China

  2. Almazbek Imanaliev

    Present address: Laboratoire National de Métrologie et d’Essais (LNE), 29 Avenue Roger Hennequin, 78197, Trappes Cedex, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. LNE-SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris - Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, 61 Avenue de l’Observatoire, 75014, Paris, France

    Sébastien Merlet, Pierre Gillot, Bing Cheng, Romain Karcher, Almazbek Imanaliev & Franck Pereira dos Santos

  2. Institute of Geodesy, Leibniz University Hannover, Schneiderberg 50, 30167, Hannover, Germany

    Ludger Timmen

Authors
  1. Sébastien Merlet
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  2. Pierre Gillot
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  3. Bing Cheng
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  4. Romain Karcher
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  5. Almazbek Imanaliev
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  6. Ludger Timmen
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  7. Franck Pereira dos Santos
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Contributions

P.G. performed the 27-day atom measurements with B.C. He performed part of the data analysis during his Ph.D. under the supervision of S.M. and F.P.D.S. P.G., B.C., R.K. and A.I. improved the atom sensor and performed atom measurements during their stay in the group. These measurements allowed for calibration of the superconducting gravimeter. L.T. performed FG5X measurements. S.M. and F.P.D.S. are responsible of gravimetry activities at LNE-SYRTE. They developed and improved the atom gravimeter, installed and use the superconducting gravimeter, and performed measurements with both sensors. They calibrated the superconducting gravimeter and initiated, finalised this study and wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sébastien Merlet.

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Merlet, S., Gillot, P., Cheng, B. et al. Calibration of a superconducting gravimeter with an absolute atom gravimeter. J Geod 95, 62 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-021-01516-6

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