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A Spaceborne Gravity Gradiometer Concept Based on Cold Atom Interferometers for Measuring Earth’s Gravity Field

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Abstract

We propose a concept for future space gravity missions using cold atom interferometers for measuring the diagonal elements of the gravity gradient tensor and the spacecraft angular velocity. The aim is to achieve better performance than previous space gravity missions due to a very low white noise spectral behavior and a very high common mode rejection, with the ultimate goals of determining the fine structures of the gravity field with higher accuracy than GOCE and detecting time-variable signals in the gravity field better than GRACE.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge useful discussions with Bruno Leone during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth Observation Programmes - European Space Agency, ESTEC, 2200, AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands

    Olivier Carraz, Christian Siemes, Luca Massotti, Roger Haagmans & Pierluigi Silvestrin

Authors
  1. Olivier Carraz
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  2. Christian Siemes
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  3. Luca Massotti
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  4. Roger Haagmans
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  5. Pierluigi Silvestrin
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Correspondence to Olivier Carraz.

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Carraz, O., Siemes, C., Massotti, L. et al. A Spaceborne Gravity Gradiometer Concept Based on Cold Atom Interferometers for Measuring Earth’s Gravity Field. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 26, 139–145 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-014-9385-x

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