Abstract
What type of gravity satellite mission is required for the time after GRACE and GOCE? Essentially, the variables at our disposal are experiment altitude, compensation of attenuation by differential measurement and measurement precision. The latter depends on the performance of the complete sensor system and involves items such as required dynamic range, baseline length, sensor type (ambient temperature or cryogenic), number of test masses, etc.
Before any mission profile is to be studied the science issues to be addressed by GRACE and GOCE follow-on missions need to be clarified. Whether further improvement of the quasi-stationary part of the gravity fields is needed depends on the needs in solid earth physics, oceanography and geodesy and on the availability and quality of complementary data. Complementary data are also the key to the adequate use of measurements of temporal variations of gravity, apart from issues such as spatial and temporal data coverage.
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Rummel, R. How to Climb the Gravity Wall. Space Science Reviews 108, 1–14 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026206308590
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026206308590