Validation of static gravity field models using GRACE K-band ranging and GOCE gradiometry data

• Published in: Geophysical journal international 2013-08, Vol.194 (2), p.751-771
• Main Authors: Hashemi Farahani, H., Ditmar, P., Klees, R., Teixeira da Encarnação, J., Liu, X., Zhao, Q., Guo, J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0956-540X; 1365-246X
• DOI: 10.1093/gji/ggt149

The ability of satellite gravimetry data to validate global static models of the Earth's gravity field is studied. Two types of data are considered: K-band ranging (KBR) data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission and Satellite Gravity Gradiometry (SGG) data from the GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) mission. The validation is based on analysis of misfits obtained as the differences between the data observed and those computed with a force model that includes, in particular, a static gravity field model to be assessed. To facilitate the model assessment on a region-by-region basis, we convert KBR data into so-called range combinations, which are approximately equivalent to the intersatellite accelerations. We only use the accurately measured components of SGG data, that is, xx, yy, zz and xz components with x, y and z being along-track, cross-track and radial axes. We perform the validation in spectral and spatial domain. The latter requires elimination of low-frequency noise in the misfit data with a subsequent averaging over pre-defined blocks. Only 'independent' data are used, that is, those that have not been used in the production of the models under consideration. The proposed methodology is applied to eight models: EGM2008 (truncated at degree 250), EIGEN-6C (truncated at degree 250), two GRACE-only models (ITG-Grace03 and ITG-Grace2010s) and four (satellite-only) combined GRACE/GOCE models (GOCO01S, EIGEN-6S, GOCO02S and DGM-1S). The latter is a novel model developed at Delft University of Technology in collaboration with GNSS Research Centre of Wuhan University. The GRACE KBR and GOCE SGG data demonstrate a pronounced sensitivity to inaccuracies of EGM2008 in 5-22 mHz (27-120 cycles-per-revolution, cpr) and 10-28 mHz (54-150 cpr) frequency ranges, respectively. The latter data also show a high sensitivity to inaccuracies of ITG-Grace2010s in 25-37 mHz (135-200 cpr) frequency range. From the validation in the spatial domain, it is confirmed that independent data of both types allow a difference in performance of the models to be observed, despite the fact that the duration of these data is much shorter than that of data used to produce those models. It is shown that EGM2008 performs weaker than the combined GRACE/GOCE models (up to the highest spectral sensitivity of the validation data). Considering the root mean square misfits related to the zz gravity gradient component, the differences in