Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1307-1323 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Advances in space research |
| Volume | 61 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Publication status | Published - 9 Dec 2017 |
Abstract
The prospects of future satellite gravimetry missions to sustain a continuous and improved observation of the gravitational field have stimulated studies of new concepts of space inertial sensors with potentially improved precision and stability. This is in particular the case for cold-atom interferometry (CAI) gradiometry which is the object of this paper. The performance of a specific CAI gradiometer design is studied here in terms of quality of the recovered gravity field through a closed-loop numerical simulation of the measurement and processing workflow. First we show that mapping the time-variable field on a monthly basis would require a noise level below 5mE/Hz. The mission scenarios are therefore focused on the static field, like GOCE. Second, the stringent requirement on the angular velocity of a one-arm gradiometer, which must not exceed 10 -6 rad/s, leads to two possible modes of operation of the CAI gradiometer: the nadir and the quasi-inertial mode. In the nadir mode, which corresponds to the usual Earth-pointing satellite attitude, only the gradient V yy , along the cross-track direction, is measured. In the quasi-inertial mode, the satellite attitude is approximately constant in the inertial reference frame and the 3 diagonal gradients V xx ,V yy and V zz are measured. Both modes are successively simulated for a 239 km altitude orbit and the error on the recovered gravity models eventually compared to GOCE solutions. We conclude that for the specific CAI gradiometer design assumed in this paper, only the quasi-inertial mode scenario would be able to significantly outperform GOCE results at the cost of technically challenging requirements on the orbit and attitude control.
Keywords
- Closed-loop simulation, Cold atom interferometry, Gravity field recovery, Space gravity gradiometry
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Engineering(all)
- Aerospace Engineering
- Physics and Astronomy(all)
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
- Geophysics
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
- Atmospheric Science
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
- Space and Planetary Science
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
- General Earth and Planetary Sciences
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In: Advances in space research, Vol. 61, No. 5, 09.12.2017, p. 1307-1323.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Simulation-based evaluation of a cold atom interferometry gradiometer concept for gravity field recovery
AU - Douch, Karim
AU - Wu, Hu
AU - Schubert, Christian
AU - Müller, Jürgen
AU - Pereira dos Santos, Franck
N1 - Funding information: This study was supported by the European Space Agency through Contract No. 4000112677/14/NL/MP. The authors would like to thank all the collaborators of the project, in particular Baptiste Battelier, Andrea Bertoldi, Sven Herrmannn, Merle Cornelius, Naceur Gaaloul, Dennis Becker, Ernst Rasel and Norman Guerlebeck. Comments and feedbacks from Christian Siemes were greatly appreciated. K. Douch, J. Müller, C. Schubert and H. Wu also acknowledge the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1128 geo-Q, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). C. Schubert would like to thank Sven Abend for comments and acknowledges financial support from ”Niedersächsisches Vorab” through the ”Quantum and Nano- Metrology (QUANOMET)” initiative within the project QT3.
PY - 2017/12/9
Y1 - 2017/12/9
N2 - The prospects of future satellite gravimetry missions to sustain a continuous and improved observation of the gravitational field have stimulated studies of new concepts of space inertial sensors with potentially improved precision and stability. This is in particular the case for cold-atom interferometry (CAI) gradiometry which is the object of this paper. The performance of a specific CAI gradiometer design is studied here in terms of quality of the recovered gravity field through a closed-loop numerical simulation of the measurement and processing workflow. First we show that mapping the time-variable field on a monthly basis would require a noise level below 5mE/Hz. The mission scenarios are therefore focused on the static field, like GOCE. Second, the stringent requirement on the angular velocity of a one-arm gradiometer, which must not exceed 10 -6 rad/s, leads to two possible modes of operation of the CAI gradiometer: the nadir and the quasi-inertial mode. In the nadir mode, which corresponds to the usual Earth-pointing satellite attitude, only the gradient V yy , along the cross-track direction, is measured. In the quasi-inertial mode, the satellite attitude is approximately constant in the inertial reference frame and the 3 diagonal gradients V xx ,V yy and V zz are measured. Both modes are successively simulated for a 239 km altitude orbit and the error on the recovered gravity models eventually compared to GOCE solutions. We conclude that for the specific CAI gradiometer design assumed in this paper, only the quasi-inertial mode scenario would be able to significantly outperform GOCE results at the cost of technically challenging requirements on the orbit and attitude control.
AB - The prospects of future satellite gravimetry missions to sustain a continuous and improved observation of the gravitational field have stimulated studies of new concepts of space inertial sensors with potentially improved precision and stability. This is in particular the case for cold-atom interferometry (CAI) gradiometry which is the object of this paper. The performance of a specific CAI gradiometer design is studied here in terms of quality of the recovered gravity field through a closed-loop numerical simulation of the measurement and processing workflow. First we show that mapping the time-variable field on a monthly basis would require a noise level below 5mE/Hz. The mission scenarios are therefore focused on the static field, like GOCE. Second, the stringent requirement on the angular velocity of a one-arm gradiometer, which must not exceed 10 -6 rad/s, leads to two possible modes of operation of the CAI gradiometer: the nadir and the quasi-inertial mode. In the nadir mode, which corresponds to the usual Earth-pointing satellite attitude, only the gradient V yy , along the cross-track direction, is measured. In the quasi-inertial mode, the satellite attitude is approximately constant in the inertial reference frame and the 3 diagonal gradients V xx ,V yy and V zz are measured. Both modes are successively simulated for a 239 km altitude orbit and the error on the recovered gravity models eventually compared to GOCE solutions. We conclude that for the specific CAI gradiometer design assumed in this paper, only the quasi-inertial mode scenario would be able to significantly outperform GOCE results at the cost of technically challenging requirements on the orbit and attitude control.
KW - Closed-loop simulation
KW - Cold atom interferometry
KW - Gravity field recovery
KW - Space gravity gradiometry
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042356920&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.asr.2017.12.005
DO - 10.1016/j.asr.2017.12.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85042356920
VL - 61
SP - 1307
EP - 1323
JO - Advances in space research
JF - Advances in space research
SN - 0273-1177
IS - 5
ER -