Time-variable gravity signal in Greenland revealed by high-low satellite-to-satellite tracking

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Authors

  • M. Weigelt
  • T. Van Dam
  • A. Jäggi
  • L. Prange
  • M. J. Tourian
  • W. Keller
  • N. Sneeuw

External Research Organisations

  • University of Luxembourg
  • University of Bern
  • University of Stuttgart
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Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3848-3859
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth
Volume118
Issue number7
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2013

Abstract

In the event of a termination of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission before the launch of GRACE Follow-On (due for launch in 2017), high-low satellite-to-satellite tracking (hl-SST) will be the only dedicated observing system with global coverage available to measure the time-variable gravity field (TVG) on a monthly or even shorter time scale. Until recently, hl-SST TVG observations were of poor quality and hardly improved the performance of Satellite Laser Ranging observations. To date, they have been of only very limited usefulness to geophysical or environmental investigations. In this paper, we apply a thorough reprocessing strategy and a dedicated Kalman filter to Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) data to demonstrate that it is possible to derive the very long-wavelength TVG features down to spatial scales of approximately 2000 km at the annual frequency and for multi-year trends. The results are validated against GRACE data and surface height changes from long-term GPS ground stations in Greenland. We find that the quality of the CHAMP solutions is sufficient to derive long-term trends and annual amplitudes of mass change over Greenland. We conclude that hl-SST is a viable source of information for TVG and can serve to some extent to bridge a possible gap between the end-of-life of GRACE and the availability of GRACE Follow-On. Key Points We derive time variable gravity field features from hl-SST CHAMP gives the quality to derive trends and annual amplitudes over Greenland The time series derived from CHAMP has excellent agreement with GRACE and GPS

Keywords

    CHAMP, Greenland, hl-SST, time-variable gravity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Cite this

Time-variable gravity signal in Greenland revealed by high-low satellite-to-satellite tracking. / Weigelt, M.; Van Dam, T.; Jäggi, A. et al.
In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 118, No. 7, 01.07.2013, p. 3848-3859.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Weigelt M, Van Dam T, Jäggi A, Prange L, Tourian MJ, Keller W et al. Time-variable gravity signal in Greenland revealed by high-low satellite-to-satellite tracking. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 2013 Jul 1;118(7):3848-3859. doi: 10.1002/jgrb.50283
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AU - Jäggi, A.

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AU - Tourian, M. J.

AU - Keller, W.

AU - Sneeuw, N.

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