TY - JOUR
T1 - Gravity field models derived from Swarm GPS data
AU - Teixeira da Encarnação, João
AU - Arnold, Daniel
AU - Bezdek, Ales
AU - Dahle, Christoph
AU - Doornbos, Eelco
AU - van den IJssel, Jose
AU - Jäggi, Adrian
AU - Mayer-Gürr, Torsten
AU - Sebera, Josef
AU - Visser, Pieter
AU - Zehentner, Norbert
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - It is of great interest to numerous geophysical studies that the time series of global gravity field models derived from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data remains uninterrupted after the end of this mission. With this in mind, some institutes have been spending efforts to estimate gravity field models from alternative sources of gravimetric data. This study focuses on the gravity field solutions estimated from Swarm global positioning system (GPS) data, produced by the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern, the Astronomical Institute (ASU, Czech Academy of Sciences) and Institute of Geodesy (IfG, Graz University of Technology). The three sets of solutions are based on different approaches, namely the celestial mechanics approach, the acceleration approach and the short-arc approach, respectively. We derive the maximum spatial resolution of the time-varying gravity signal in the Swarm gravity field models to be degree 12, in comparison with the more accurate models obtained from K-band ranging data of GRACE. We demonstrate that the combination of the GPS-driven models produced with the three different approaches improves the accuracy in all analysed monthly solutions, with respect to any of them. In other words, the combined gravity field model consistently benefits from the individual strengths of each separate solution. The improved accuracy of the combined model is expected to bring benefits to the geophysical studies during the period when no dedicated gravimetric mission is operational.
AB - It is of great interest to numerous geophysical studies that the time series of global gravity field models derived from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data remains uninterrupted after the end of this mission. With this in mind, some institutes have been spending efforts to estimate gravity field models from alternative sources of gravimetric data. This study focuses on the gravity field solutions estimated from Swarm global positioning system (GPS) data, produced by the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern, the Astronomical Institute (ASU, Czech Academy of Sciences) and Institute of Geodesy (IfG, Graz University of Technology). The three sets of solutions are based on different approaches, namely the celestial mechanics approach, the acceleration approach and the short-arc approach, respectively. We derive the maximum spatial resolution of the time-varying gravity signal in the Swarm gravity field models to be degree 12, in comparison with the more accurate models obtained from K-band ranging data of GRACE. We demonstrate that the combination of the GPS-driven models produced with the three different approaches improves the accuracy in all analysed monthly solutions, with respect to any of them. In other words, the combined gravity field model consistently benefits from the individual strengths of each separate solution. The improved accuracy of the combined model is expected to bring benefits to the geophysical studies during the period when no dedicated gravimetric mission is operational.
U2 - 10.1186/s40623-016-0499-9
DO - 10.1186/s40623-016-0499-9
M3 - Article
SN - 1343-8832
VL - 68
SP - 127
JO - Earth, Planets and Space
JF - Earth, Planets and Space
IS - 1
ER -