From Eötvös to Milligal

The focus of attention is GOCE, the Gravity Field and Steady State Ocean Circulation Explorer mission of ESA. GOCE is one of the four candidate missions within the Earth Explorer Program and the first dedicated gravity field mission of ESA. GOCE has a long history which is very well documented by a series of investigations, primarily made under the CIGAR I to IV projects. In the course of these studies an ever increasing interest of the international geoscientific community in a dedicated gravity field mission could be observed. As a result of these activities a European cluster of competence centers emerged, representing a very capable international scientific community, speaking a common scientific language and having a common goal in mind: the realization of the GOCE mission. not assigned KP: Institute of Astronomical and Physical Geodesy (IAPG)