TY - JOUR
T1 - What Can We Expect from the Inclined Satellite Formation for Temporal Gravity Field Determination?
AU - Zhou, Hao
AU - Luo, Zhicai
AU - Zhou, Zebing
AU - Yang, Fan
AU - Pail, Roland
AU - Tu, Liangcheng
AU - Yeh, Hsien Chi
AU - Yang, Shanqing
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - The assumption of implementing a Bender-type mission with two pairs of inline satellites by two institutions, one in the inclined satellite formation (ISF) and the other in the polar satellite formation (PSF), has been proven as an optimal selection for the next-generation gravimetric mission (NGGM). The prerequisite of this assumption is to ensure the combination as well as the independency of the missions in the PSF scenario as well as in the ISF scenario. To promote NGGM, we implement a close-loop simulation study to evaluate the performance of the stand-alone ISF mission. In the spectral domain, the ISF estimations show extremely poor quality for zonal and near-zonal coefficients due to the absence of observations over the polar regions, while the sectorial and near-sectorial coefficient estimations show approximately 71 ~ 77% noise reductions when compared with the PSF estimations. In the spectral domain, the ISF mission presents its superior capability in detecting the Earth’s mass variations within its observational areas than the PSF mission. The improvements of ISF are also obtained over the transition zones (50°N ~ 70°N and 50°S ~ 70°S) with 41% noise reductions. In addition, the general better performance of gravity estimations via ISF may promote the potential geoscience applications over the small river basins, the coastal ice sheet and the earthquake areas with better accuracy and finer resolution. The simulation results demonstrate the feasibility of implementing a stand-alone mission in the inclined orbits, and the further possibility of promoting a Bender-type mission via a profound cooperation by two institutions.
AB - The assumption of implementing a Bender-type mission with two pairs of inline satellites by two institutions, one in the inclined satellite formation (ISF) and the other in the polar satellite formation (PSF), has been proven as an optimal selection for the next-generation gravimetric mission (NGGM). The prerequisite of this assumption is to ensure the combination as well as the independency of the missions in the PSF scenario as well as in the ISF scenario. To promote NGGM, we implement a close-loop simulation study to evaluate the performance of the stand-alone ISF mission. In the spectral domain, the ISF estimations show extremely poor quality for zonal and near-zonal coefficients due to the absence of observations over the polar regions, while the sectorial and near-sectorial coefficient estimations show approximately 71 ~ 77% noise reductions when compared with the PSF estimations. In the spectral domain, the ISF mission presents its superior capability in detecting the Earth’s mass variations within its observational areas than the PSF mission. The improvements of ISF are also obtained over the transition zones (50°N ~ 70°N and 50°S ~ 70°S) with 41% noise reductions. In addition, the general better performance of gravity estimations via ISF may promote the potential geoscience applications over the small river basins, the coastal ice sheet and the earthquake areas with better accuracy and finer resolution. The simulation results demonstrate the feasibility of implementing a stand-alone mission in the inclined orbits, and the further possibility of promoting a Bender-type mission via a profound cooperation by two institutions.
KW - Geoscience application
KW - Inclined satellite formation
KW - Next-generation gravimetric mission
KW - Temporal gravity field
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85103418712&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10712-021-09641-9
DO - 10.1007/s10712-021-09641-9
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85103418712
SN - 0169-3298
VL - 42
SP - 699
EP - 726
JO - Surveys in Geophysics
JF - Surveys in Geophysics
IS - 3
ER -