AIUB-Grace02s: Status of GRACE gravity field recovery using the celestial mechanics approach

Abstract

The gravity field model AIUB-GRACE02S is the second release of a model generated with the Celestial Mechanics Approach using GRACE data. Inter-satellite K-band range-rate measurements and GPS-derived kinematic positions serve as observations to solve for the Earth's static gravity field in a generalized orbit determination problem. Apart from the normalized spherical harmonic coefficients up to degree 150, arc-specific parameters like initial conditions and pseudo-stochastic parameters are solved for in a rigorous least-squares adjustment based on both types of observations. The quality of AIUB-GRACE02S has significantly improved with respect to the earlier release 01 due to a refined orbit parametrization and the implementation of all relevant background models. AIUB-GRACE02S is based on 2 years of data and was derived in one iteration step from EGM96, which served as a priori gravity field model. Comparisons with levelling data and models from other groups are used to assess the suitability of the Celestial Mechanics Approach for GRACE gravity field determination. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012.