Abstract
GOCE is the first gravitational gradiometry satellite mission. Gravitational gradiometry is the measurement of the second derivatives of the gravitational potential. The nine derivatives form a 3 × 3 matrix, which in geodesy is referred to as Marussi tensor. From the basic properties of the gravitational field, it follows that the matrix is symmetric and trace free. The latter property corresponds to Laplace equation, which gives the theoretical foundation of its representation in terms of spherical harmonic or Fourier series. At the same time, it provides the most powerful quality check of the actual measured gradients. GOCE gradiometry is based on the principle of differential accelerometry. As the satellite carries out a rotational motion in space, the accelerometer differences contain angular effects that must be removed. The GOCE gradiometer provides the components V xx , V yy , V zz and V xz with high precision, while the components V xy and V yz are of low precision, all expressed in the gradiometer reference frame. The best performance is achieved inside the measurement band from 5 × 10–3 to 0.1 Hz. At lower frequencies, the noise increases with 1/f and is superimposed by cyclic distortions, which are modulated from the orbit and attitude motion into the gradient measurements. Global maps with the individual components show typical patterns related to topographic and tectonic features. The maps are separated into those for ascending and those for descending tracks as the components are expressed in the instrument frame. All results are derived from the measurements of the period from November to December 2009. While the components V xx and V yy reach a noise level of about \({10\;\rm{\frac{mE}{\sqrt{Hz}}}}\), that of V zz and V xz is about \({20\; \rm{\frac{mE}{\sqrt{Hz}}}}\). The cause of the latter’s higher noise is not yet understood. This is also the reason why the deviation from the Laplace condition is at the \({20 \;\rm{\frac{mE}{\sqrt{Hz}}}}\) level instead of the originally planned \({11\;\rm{\frac{mE}{\sqrt{Hz}}}}\). Each additional measurement cycle will improve the accuracy and to a smaller extent also the resolution of the spherical harmonic coefficients derived from the measured gradients.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Balmino G, Barlier F, Bernard A, Bouzat C, Riviere G, Runavot J (1981) GRADIO gradiométrie par satellite. Toulouse
Baur O (2007) Die Invariantendarstellung in der Satellitengradiometrie: theoretische Betrachtungen und numerische Realisierung anhand der Fallstudie GOCE. PhD thesis, Universität Stuttgart
Baur O, Sneeuw N, Grafarend EW (2007) Methodology and use of tensor invariants for satellite gravity gradiometry. J Geod 82(4–5): 279–293. doi:10.1007/s00190-007-0178-5
Bouman J, Fiorot S, Fuchs M, Gruber T, Schrama E, Tscherning CC, Veicherts M, Visser P (2011) GOCE gravitational gradients along the orbit. J Geod. doi:10.1007/s00190-011-0464-0
Brockmann J, Kargoll B, Krasbutter I, Schuh WD, Wermuth M (2010) GOCE data analysis: from calibrated measurements to the global earth gravity field. In: Flechtner F, Gruber T, Güntner A, Mandea M, Rothacher M, Schöne T, Wickert J (eds) System Earth via Geodetic-Geophysical Space Techniques. Springer, Berlin, pp 213–229. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-10228-8_17
Carroll J, Savet P (1959) Gravity difference detection. Aerosp Eng:44–47
Cesare S (2008) GOCE—Performance requirements and budgets for the gradiometrc mission. project report, ThalesAleniaSpace, Torino
Chan HA, Moody MV, Paik HJ (1987) Superconducting gravity gradiometer for sensitive gravity measurements. II. experiment. Phys Rev D 35(12): 3572. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.35.3572
Emiliani C (1992) Planet earth: cosmology, geology, and the evolution of life and environment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Eötvös RV (1906) Bestimmung der Gradienten der Schwerkraft und ihrer Niveauflächen mit Hilfe der Drehwaage. vol 1. Verhandlungen der 15. allgemeinen Konferenz der Internationalen Erdmessung, Budapest, pp 337–396
European Space Agency (1999) Gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation mission, report for mission selection of the four candidate earth explorer missions. Tech. rep., ESA SP-1233(1), ESA publications division, Noordwijk
Floberghagen R, Fehringer M, Lamarre D, Muzi D, Frommknecht B (2011) Mission design, operation and exploitation of the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer. J Geod. doi:10.1007/s00190-011-0498-3
Forward RL (1974) Review of artificial satellite gravity gradiometer techniques for geodesy. In: Veis G (ed) The Use of Artificial Satellites for Geodesy and Geodynamics. The National Technical University of Athens, Athens, pp 157–192
Gruber T, Abrikosov O, Hugentobler U (2010a) GOCE Standards. GO-TN-HPF-GS-0111, Issue 3.2
Gruber T, Rummel R, Abrikosov O, van Hees R (2010b) GOCE Level 2 product data handbook. GO-MA-HPF-GS-0110, Issue 4.2
Jekeli C (1988) The gravity gradiometer survey system (GGSS). Eos, Trans Am Geophys Union 69(8):105 & 116–117
Johannessen JA, Balmino G, Provost CL, Rummel R, Sabadini R, Sünkel H, Tscherning C, Visser P, Woodworth P, Hughes C, Legrand P, Sneeuw N, Perosanz F, Aguirre-Martinez M, Rebhan H, Drinkwater M (2003) The European gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer satellite mission: Its impact on geophysics. Surv Geophys 24(4):339–386. doi:10.1023/B:GEOP.0000004264.04667.5e, https://bora.uib.no/handle/1956/3796
Jung K (1961) Schwerkraftverfahren in der angewandten Geophysik. Akademische Verlags Gesellschaft, Leipzig
Lühr H, Rentz S, Ritter P, Liu H, Häusler K (2007) Average thermospheric wind patterns over the polar regions, as observed by CHAMP. Ann Geophys 25: 1093–1101
Martinec Z (2003) Green’s function solution to spherical gradiometric boundary-value problems. J Geod 77(1–2): 41–49. doi:10.1007/s00190-002-0288-z
Marussi A (1985) Intrinsic geodesy. Translated from the Italian by Reilly WI. Springer, Berlin
McGuirk JM, Foster GT, Fixler JB, Snadden MJ, Kasevich MA (2002) Sensitive absolute-gravity gradiometry using atom interferometry. Phys Rev A 65(3):033,608, doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.65.033608
Moritz H (1980) Advanced physical geodesy. Herbert Wichmann Verlag, Karlsruhe
Müller J, Jarecki F, Wolf I, Brieden P (2010) Quality evaluation of GOCE gradients. In: Flechtner F, Gruber T, Güntner A, Mandea M, Rothacher M, Schöne T, Wickert J (eds) System Earth via Geodetic-Geophysical Space Techniques. Springer, Berlin., pp 265–276. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-10228-8_21
Ohanian HC, Ruffini R (1994) Gravitation and spacetime, 2nd edn. Norton & Company, New York
Oppenheim AV, Schafer RW (1989) Digital signal processing. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River
Pail R, Bruinsma S, Migliaccio F, Förste C, Goiginger H, Schuh W-D, Höck E, Reguzzoni M, Brockmann JM, Abrikosov O, Veicherts M, Fecher T, Mayrhofer R, Krasbutter I, Sansò; F, Tscherning CC (2011) First GOCE gravity field models derived by three different approaches. J Geod. doi:10.1007/s100190-011-0467-x
Pavlis NK, Holmes SA, Kenyon SC, Factor JK (2008) An earth gravitational model to degree 2160: EGM2008, Presented to EGU-2008, Vienna, Austria
Pedersen LB, Rasmussen TM (1990) The gradient tensor of potential field anomalies: Some implications on data collection and data processing of maps. Geophysics 55(12): 1558–1566. doi:10.1190/1.1442807
Rummel R (1986) Satellite gradiometry. In: Sünkel H (eds) Mathematical and numerical techniques in physical geodesy, lecture notes in earth sciences,7. Springer, Berlin, pp 317–363. doi:10.1007/BFb0010135
Rummel R (1997) Spherical spectral properties of the earth’s gravitational potential and its first and second derivatives. In: Sansò; F, Rummel R (eds) Geodetic boundary value problems in view of the one centimeter geoid, lecture notes in earth sciences, vol 65. Springer, Berlin, pp 359–404. doi:10.1007/BFb0011710
Rummel R, Rapp R (1976) The influence of the atmosphere on geoid and potential coefficient determinations from gravity data. J Geophys Res 81(32): 5639–5642. doi:10.1029/JB081i032p05639
Rummel R, van Gelderen M (1992) Spectral analysis of the full gravity tensor. Geophys J Int 111(1): 159–169. doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.1992.tb00562.x
Schreiner M (1994) Tensor spherical harmonics and their application in satellite gradiometry. PhD thesis, University of Kaiserslautern
Schuh WD (2002) Improved modeling of SGG-data sets by advanced filter strategies. In: ESA-Project (ed): ESA-Project “From Eötvös to mGal+”, WP 2, Final-Report
Stummer C, Fecher T, Pail R (2011) Alternative method for angular rate determination within the GOCE gradiometer processing. J Geod. doi:10.1007/s00190-011-0461-3
Tsuboi C (1983) Gravity. George Allen & Unwin, London
Watson D (1992) Contouring: a guide to the analysis and display of spatial sata, 1st edn. Pergamon, Oxford
Wells W (1984) Spaceborne gravity gradiometers. In: Proc. NASA GSFC workshop, NASA conference publication 2305
While J, Jackson A, Smit D, Biegert E (2006) Spectral analysis of gravity gradiometry profiles. Geophysics 71(1): J11–J22. doi:10.1190/1.2169848
Yu J, Zhao D (2010) The gravitational gradient tensor’s invariants and the related boundary conditions. Sci China Earth Sci 53(5): 781–790. doi:10.1007/s11430-010-0014-2
Yu N, Kohel J, Kellogg J, Maleki L (2006) Development of an atom-interferometer gravity gradiometer for gravity measurement from space. Appl Phys B 84(4): 647–652. doi:10.1007/s00340-006-2376-x
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rummel, R., Yi, W. & Stummer, C. GOCE gravitational gradiometry. J Geod 85, 777–790 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-011-0500-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-011-0500-0