Abstract
Spring 2009 the satellite Gravity and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE), equipped with a gravitational gradiometer, was launched by European Space Agency (ESA). Its purpose is the detailed determination of the spatial variations of the Earth’s gravitational field, with applications in oceanography, geophysics, geodesy, glaciology, and climatology. Gravitational gradients are derived from the differences between the measurements of an ensemble of three orthogonal pairs of accelerometers, located around the center of mass of the spacecraft. Gravitational gradiometry is complemented by gravity analysis from orbit perturbations. The orbits are thereby derived from uninterrupted and three-dimensional GPS tracking of GOCE. The gravitational tensor consists of the nine second-derivatives of the Earth’s gravitational potential. Due to its symmetry only six of them are independent. These six components can also be interpreted in terms of the local curvature of the field or in terms of components of the tidal field generated by the Earth inside the spacecraft. Four of the six components are measured with high precision (10− 11 s− 2 per square-root of Hz), the others are less precise. Several strategies exist for the determination of the gravity field at the Earth’s surface from the measured tensor components at altitude. The mission ended in November 2013. Until August 2012 in total 2.3 years of data were collected. They entered into ESA’s fourth release of GOCE gravity models. After August 2012 the orbit altitude was lowered in several steps by altogether 31 km in order to test the enhanced gravitational sensitivity at lower orbit heights.
References
Albertella A, Rummel R (2009) On the spectral consistency of the altimetric ocean and geoid surface: a one-dimensional example. J Geod 83(9):805–815
Baur O (2007) Die Invariantendarstellung in der Satellitengradiometrie. DGK, Reihe C, Beck, München
Baur O, Grafarend EW (2006) High performance GOCE gravity field recovery from gravity gradient tensor invariants and kinematic orbit information. In: Flury J, Rummel R, Reigber Ch, Rothacher M, Boedecker G, Schreiber U (eds) Observation of the earth system from space. Springer, Berlin, pp 239–254
Baur O, Cai J, Sneeuw N (2009) Spectral approaches to solving the polar gap problem. In: Flechtner F, Mandea M, Gruber Th, Rothacher M, Wickert J, Güntner A, Schöne T (eds) System earth via geodetic-geophysical space techniques. Springer, Berlin
Bingham RJ, Knudsen P, Andersen O, Pail R (2011) An initial estimate of the North Atlantic steady-state geostrophic circulation from GOCE. Geophys Res Lett 38:L01606. doi:10.1029/2010GL045633
Bock H, Jäggi A, Meyer U, Visser P, van den Ijssel J, van Helleputte T, Heinze M, Hugentobler U (2011) GPS-derived orbits of the GOCE satellite. J Geod 85(11):807–818
Bouman J, Visser P, Fuchs M, Broerse T, Haberkorn C, Lieb V, Schmidt M, Schrama E, van der Wal W (2013) GOCE gravity gradients and the Earth’s time varying gravity field. ESA Living Planet, Edinburgh
Brockmann JM, Kargoll B, Krasbutter I, Schuh WD, Wermuth M (2009) GOCE data analysis: from calibrated measurements to the global earth gravity field. In: Flechtner F, Mandea M, Gruber Th, Rothacher M, Wickert J, Güntner A, Schöne T (eds) System earth via geodetic-geophysical space techniques. Springer, Berlin
Bunge H-P, Richards MA, Lithgow-Bertelloni C, Baumgardner JR, Grand SP, Romanowiez BA (1998) Time scales and heterogeneous structure in geodynamic earth models. Science 280:91–95
Carroll JJ, Savet PH (1959) Gravity difference detection. Aerosp Eng 18:44–47
Colombo O (1989) Advanced techniques for high-resolution mapping of the gravitational field. In: Sansò F, Rummel R (eds) Theory of satellite geodesy and gravity field determination. Lecture notes in earth sciences, vol 25. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 335–369
Doornbos E, Bruinsma S, Fritsche B, Visser P, v/d Ijssel J, Teixeira Encarna J, Kern M (2013) Air density and wind retrieval using GOCE data. ESA Living Planet, Edinburgh
Eicker A, Mayer-Gürr T, Ilk KH, Kurtenbach E (2009) Regionally refined gravity field models from in situ satellite data. In: Flechtner F, Mandea M, Gruber Th, Rothacher M, Wickert J, Güntner A, Schöne T (eds) System earth via geodetic-geophysical space techniques. Springer, Berlin
ESA (1999a) Introducing the “Living Planet” Programme-the ESA strategy for earth observation. ESA SP-1234. ESA Publication Division, ESTEC, Noordwijk
ESA (1999b) Gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation mission. Reports for mission selection, SP-1233 (1). ESA Publication Division, ESTEC, Noordwijk. http://www.esa.int./livingplanet/goce
ESA (2006) The changing earth-new scientific challenges for ESA’s Living Planet Programme. ESA SP-1304. ESA Publication Division, ESTEC, Noordwijk
Falk G, Ruppel W (1974) Mechanik, Relativität, Gravitation. Springer, Berlin
Ferraccioli F, Finn CA, Jordan TA, Bell RE, Anderson LM, Damaske D (2011) East Antarctic rifting triggers uplift in the Gamburtsev Mountains. Nature 479:388–392
Förste C, Bruinsma S, Shako R, Marty J-C, Flechtner F, Abrikosov O, Dahle C, Lemoine J-M, Neumayer H, Biancale R, Barthelmes F, König R, Balmino G (2011) EIGEN-6: a new combined global gravity field model including GOCE data from the collaboration of GFZ-Potsdam and GRGS-Toulouse, EGU2011-3242
Freeden W, Gervens T, Schreiner M (1998) Constructive approximation on the sphere. Oxford Science Publications, Oxford
Ganachaud A, Wunsch C, Kim M-Ch, Tapley B (1997) Combination of TOPEX/POSEIDON data with a hydrographic inversion for determination of the oceanic general circulation and its relation to geoid accuracy. Geophys J Int 128:708–722
Gill AE (1982) Atmosphere-ocean dynamics. Academic, New York
Hager BH, Richards MA (1989) Long-wavelength variations in Earth’s geoid: physical models and dynamical implications. Philos Trans R Soc Lond A 328:309–327
Jäggi A (2007) Pseudo-stochastic orbit modelling of low earth satellites using the global positioning system. Geodätisch - geophysikalische Arbeiten in der Schweiz, 73
Janjić T, Schröter J, Savcenko R, Bosch W, Albertella A, Rummel R, Klatt O (2012) Impact of combining GRACE and GOCE gravity data on ocean circulation estimates. Ocean Sci 8:65–79. doi:10.5194/os-8-65-2012
Johannessen JA, Balmino G, LeProvost C, Rummel R, Sabadini R, Sünkel H, Tscherning CC, Visser P, Woodworth P, Hughes CH, LeGrand P, Sneeuw N, Perosanz F, Aguirre-Martinez M, Rebhan H, Drinkwater MR (2003) The European gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer satellite mission: its impact on geophysics. Surv Geophys 24:339–386
Kaban MK, Schwintzer P, Reigber Ch (2004) A new isostatic model of the lithosphere and gravity field. J Geod 78:368–385
Kusche J, Klees R (2002) Regularization of gravity field estimation from satellite gravity gradients. J Geod 76:359–368
LeGrand P, Minster J-F (1999) Impact of the GOCE gravity mission on ocean circulation estimates. Geophys Res Lett 26(13):1881–1884
Le Traon PY, Schaeffer P, Guinehut S, Rio MH, Hernandez F, Larnicol G, Lemoine JM (2011) Mean ocean dynamic topography from GOCE and altimetry, ESA SP 686
Lithgow-Bertelloni C, Richards MA (1998) The dynamics of cenozoic and mesozoic plate motions. Rev Geophys 36(1):27–78
Losch M, Sloyan B, Schröter J, Sneeuw N (2002) Box inverse models, altimetry and the geoid; problems with the omission error. J Geophys Res 107(C7):15-1–15-13
Martinec Z (2003) Green’s function solution to spherical gradiometric boundary-value problems. J Geod 77:41–49
Marussi A (1985) Intrinsic geodesy. Springer, Berlin
Maximenko N, Niiler P, Rio M-H, Melnichenko O, Centurioni L, Chambers D, Zlotnicki V, Galperin B (2009) Mean dynamic topography of the ocean derived from satellite and drifting buoy data using three different techniques. J Atmos Ocean Technol 26:1910–1919
Migliaccio F, Reguzzoni M, Sansò F (2004) Space-wise approach to satellite gravity field determination in the presence of colored noise. J Geod 78:304–313
Misner CW, Thorne KS, Wheeler JA (1970) Gravitation. Freeman, San Francisco
Moritz H, Hofmann-Wellenhof B (1993) Geometry, relativity, geodesy. Wichmann, Karlsruhe
Nutz H (2002) A unified setup of gravitational observables. Dissertation. Shaker Verlag, Aachen
Ohanian HC, Ruffini R (1994) Gravitation and spacetime. Norton & Comp., New York
Pail R (2014) It is all about statistics: global gravity field modelling from GOCE and complementary data. In: Freeden W, Nashed MZ, Sonar T (eds) Handbook of geomathematics. Springer, Heidelberg
Pail R, Plank R (2004) GOCE gravity field processing strategy. Stud Geophys Geod 48:289–309
Rummel R (1986) Satellite gradiometry. In: Sünkel H (ed) Mathematical and numerical techniques in physical geodesy. Lecture notes in earth sciences, vol 7. Springer, Berlin, pp 317–363. ISBN (Print):978-3-540-16809-6, 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. ISBN:3-540-62636-0
Rummel R, van Gelderen M (1992) Spectral analysis of the full gravity tensor. Geophys J Int 111:159–169
Rummel R, Balmino G, Johannessen J, Visser P, Woodworth P (2002) Dedicated gravity field missions-principles and aims. J Geodyn 33/1–2:3–20
Sampietro D, Reguzzoni M, Braitenberg C (2012) The GOCE estimated Moho beneath the Tibetan Plateau and Himalaya. In: C Rizos, P Wills (eds) Earth on the edge: science for a substainable planet, International Association of Geodesy Symposia, vol 139. Springer, pp 391–397. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-37222-3_52
Schreiner M (1994) Tensor spherical harmonics and their application in satellite gradiometry. Dissertation, Universität Kaiserslautern
Stubenvoll R, Förste Ch, Abrikosov O, Kusche J (2009) GOCE and its use for a high-resolution global gravity combination model. In: Flechtner F, Mandea M, Gruber Th, Rothacher M, Wickert J, Güntner A, Schöne T (eds) System earth via geodetic-geophysical space techniques. Springer, Berlin
Svehla D, Rothacher M (2004) Kinematic precise orbit determination for gravity field determination. In: Sansò F (ed) The proceedings of the international association of geodesy: a window on the future of geodesy. Springer, Berlin, pp 181–188
Van der Meijde M, Julia J, Assumpcao M(2013) Gravity derived Moho for South America. Tectonophysics 609:456–467
Wells WC (ed) (1984) Spaceborne gravity gradiometers. NASA conference publication, vol 2305, Greenbelt
Woodworth PL, Hughes CW, Bingham RJ, Gruber T(2012) Towards worthwide height system unification using ocean information. J Geodetic Sci 2(4):302–318. doi:10.2478/v10156-012-0004-8
Wunsch C, Gaposchkin EM (1980) On using satellite altimetry to determine the general circulation of the oceans with application to geoid improvement. Rev Geophys 18:725–745
Yi W, Rummel R (2014) A comparison of GOCE gravitational models with EGM2008. J Geodyn 73:14–22
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this entry
Cite this entry
Rummel, R. (2014). GOCE: Gravitational Gradiometry in a Satellite. In: Freeden, W., Nashed, M., Sonar, T. (eds) Handbook of Geomathematics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27793-1_4-3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27793-1_4-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27793-1
eBook Packages: Springer Reference MathematicsReference Module Computer Science and Engineering