Performance of GPS-based accelerometry: CHAMP and GRACE

van den IJssel J., Visser P.
Department of Earth Observation and Space Systems (DEOS), Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS Delft, Netherlands

Abstract: Extensive recovery experiments based on GPS satellite-to-satellite tracking data from the CHAMP and GRACE-A satellites show that the performance of GPS-based accelerometry is comparable for both satellites. Several different quality measures like the recovery error, correlation and the contribution measure are used to assess the performance of GPS-based accelerometry and these quality measures indicate that the best performance is obtained in along-track direction. In cross-track direction the performance is slightly worse and due to correlations between the accelerations and the initial conditions in cross-track direction, a bias in this direction seems hardly observable. Unfortunately, GPS-based accelerometry is hardly sensitive in radial direction, due to correlations between the accelerations in the radial direction and the initial conditions in radial and along-track direction. It is shown that predominantly the longer wavelengths are well determined and high-frequency accelerations, caused by e.g. geomagnetic storms, are not well recovered. © 2007 COSPAR.
Author Keywords: Accelerometry; CHAMP; GPS; GRACE; Non-gravitational accelerations

Year: 2007
Source title: Advances in Space Research
Volume: 39
Issue: 10
Page : 1597-1603
Cited by: 6
Link: Scorpus Link
Document Type: Article
Source: Scopus
Authors with affiliations:

1. van den IJssel, J., Department of Earth Observation and Space Systems (DEOS), Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS Delft, Netherlands
2. Visser, P., Department of Earth Observation and Space Systems (DEOS), Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS Delft, Netherlands

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