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Special Issue "Next-Generation Gravity Mission"

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A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Satellite Missions for Earth and Planetary Exploration".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 24 November 2023 | Viewed by 3451

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Thomas Gruber

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Guest Editor

Institute of Astronomical and Physical Geodesy, School for Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, 80333 Munich, Germany
Interests: gravity field missions; gravity field modelling; height systems; mass distribution and transport
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Jean-Michel Lemoine

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

CNES, Service DTN/CD/GS, BPI 3100, 18 avenue Edouard Belin, CEDEX 9, 31401 Toulouse, France
Interests: gravity field missions; gravity field modelling; mass distribution and transport; satellite laser ranging and DORIS data processing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

During the last two decades, satellite gravimetry has become a new remote sensing technique, providing a detailed global picture of the physical structure of the Earth. With the CHAMP, GRACE, GRACE Follow-On, and GOCE missions, for the first time, mass irregularities and the transport of mass in the Earth system could be systematically observed and monitored from space. A wide range of Earth science disciplines and operational observing systems benefit from these observations and have been enabled to improve their models and to get new insights into processes of the Earth system (e.g., water cycle, continental hydrology, ocean modelling, ice sheet and glacier melting, lithosphere modelling). In order to secure sustained observations of mass distribution and mass transport on a long-term basis, but also to address new applications, space agencies and the Earth science community are currently planning and studying mission concepts for the next-generation gravity mission. This mission, in addition to ensuring continuity, shall be capable of providing mass-related Earth system parameters with higher accuracy and better spatial and temporal resolutions.

In order to get a complete picture about the state-of-the-art and future developments towards a next generation gravity mission, the aim of the Special Issue is to collect papers addressing the topic from various perspectives.

Themes and articles may cover anything from the mission design down to applications. In particular, contributions may address, but are not limited to the following topics:

Mission architecture;
Orbit design for next-generation gravity missions;
Satellite system concepts;
Observation techniques and instruments;
Data processing concepts;
Simulations and performance analyses;
Applications in Earth sciences or other disciplines.

Dr. Thomas Gruber
Dr. Jean-Michel Lemoine
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

satellite gravimetry
mission design
orbit design
gravity field space sensors
innovative space ranging devices
gravity field modelling
simulations
mass distribution
mass transport in earth system
earth science applications

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Open AccessArticle

Tilt-to-Length Coupling Analysis of an Off-Axis Optical Bench Design for NGGM

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Remote Sens. 2023, 15(15), 3915; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15153915 - 07 Aug 2023

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Abstract

A new off-axis optical design alternative to that of the GRACE Follow-on mission for future NGGM missions is considered. In place of the triple-mirror assembly of the GRACE Follow-on mission, a laser retro-reflector is instead generated by means of lens systems. The receiving (RX) beam and transmitting (TX) beam are enforced to be anti-parallel by a control loop with differential wavefront sensing (DWS) signals as readout, and a fast-steering mirror is employed to actuate the pointing of the local beam. The tilt-to-length (TTL) coupling noise of the new off-axis optical bench layout is carefully studied in the present work. Local TTL originated from piston noise as well as assembly and alignment errors of optical components are studied. Effort is also made to have an in depth understanding of global TTL due to relative attitude jitter between spacecraft. The margin of TTL noise in the position noise budget for laser ranging is examined. With an open loop control of the offset between the reference point of the optical bench and the centre of mass of a satellite, the TTL noise of the new off-axis optical bench design may be suppressed efficiently. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Next-Generation Gravity Mission)

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Open AccessArticle

Scale Factor Determination for the GRACE Follow-On Laser Ranging Interferometer Including Thermal Coupling

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Remote Sens. 2023, 15(3), 570; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15030570 - 18 Jan 2023

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Abstract

The GRACE follow-on satellites carry the very first interspacecraft Laser Ranging Interferometer (LRI). After more than four years in orbit, the LRI outperforms the sensitivity of the conventional Microwave Instrument (MWI). However, in the current data processing scheme, the LRI product still needs the MWI data to determine the unknown absolute laser frequency, representing the “ruler” for converting the raw phase measurements into a physical displacement in meters. In this paper, we derive formulas for precisely performing that conversion from the phase measurement into a range, accounting for a varying carrier frequency. Furthermore, the dominant errors due to knowledge uncertainty of the carrier frequency as well as uncorrected time biases are derived. In the second part, we address the dependency of the LRI on the MWI in the currently employed cross-calibration scheme and present three different models for the LRI laser frequency, two of which are largely independent of the MWI. Furthermore, we analyze the contribution of thermal variations on the scale factor estimates and the LRI-MWI residuals. A linear model called Thermal Coupling (TC) is derived, which significantly reduces the differences between LRI and MWI to a level where the MWI observations limit the comparison. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Next-Generation Gravity Mission)

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Open AccessTechnical Note

Comparing GRACE-FO KBR and LRI Ranging Data with Focus on Carrier Frequency Variations

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Remote Sens. 2022, 14(17), 4335; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14174335 - 01 Sep 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1443

Abstract

The GRACE Follow-On satellite mission measures distance variations between its two satellites in order to derive monthly gravity field maps, indicating mass variability on Earth on a scale of a few 100 km originating from hydrology, seismology, climatology and other sources. This mission hosts two ranging instruments, a conventional microwave system based on K(a)-band ranging (KBR) and a novel laser ranging instrument (LRI), both relying on interferometric phase readout. In this paper, we show how the phase measurements can be converted into range data using a time-dependent carrier frequency (or wavelength) that takes into account potential intraday variability in the microwave or laser frequency. Moreover, we analyze the KBR-LRI residuals and discuss which error and noise contributors limit the residuals at high and low Fourier frequencies. It turns out that the agreement between KBR and LRI biased range observations can be slightly improved by considering intraday carrier frequency variations in the processing. Although the effect is probably small enough to have little relevance for gravity field determination at the current precision level, this analysis is of relevance for detailed instrument characterization and potentially for future more precise missions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Next-Generation Gravity Mission)

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