Global Earth’s gravity field solution with GRACE orbit and range measurements using modified short arc approach

Qiujie Chen, Yunzhong Shen, Xingfu Zhang, Houze Hsu, Wu Chen

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Traditionally, the Earth’s gravity field model is computed from GRACE orbit and range rate measurements, e.g., in a short arc approach where both the position and the velocity vectors are integrated from a force model. In this contribution, we use the GRACE orbit and range measurements to recover the Earth’s gravity field model, thus we only need to integrate the position vectors. We use the range differences between two adjacent epochs to eliminate the range ambiguities. Using GRACE Level-1B RL02 data released by Jet Propulsion laboratory, the gravity field model TJGRACE02O complete to degree and order 90 is developed from 7 years of reduced dynamic orbits covering the period 2004–2010, and the gravity field model TJGRACE02K complete to degree and order 120 is computed from 1 month of kinematic orbits and K-band range data of January. Comparing the degree geoid errors of our new models with recent gravity field models such as the CHAMP-only models EIGEN-CHAMP05S, AIUB-CHAMP03S, ULUX-CHAMP2013S and the GRACE-only models GGM05S, Tongji-GRACE01 as well as a monthly model from the ITG-GRACE2010 time series, and validating these models with GPS-leveling data sets in the USA, we can conclude that the TJGRACE02O model is more accurate than all the CHAMP-only models and TJGRACE02K is comparable in quality to the corresponding GRACE monthly model from ITG-GRACE2010.
Original languageEnglish
Article number77
Pages (from-to)173-185
Number of pages13
JournalActa Geodaetica et Geophysica
Volume50
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Jun 2015

Keywords

  • GRACE
  • Modified short arc approach
  • Satellite gravimetry
  • Satellite orbit

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Building and Construction
  • Geophysics
  • Geology

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