HR: 08:30h
AN: G31A-03    [PDF]
TI: GRACE Gravity Field Product Description and Mission Profile
AU: * Bettadpur, S
EM: srinivas@csr.utexas.edu
AF: Center for Space Research, The University of Texas at Austin, 3925 W. Braker Lane, Suite 200, Austin, TX 78759 United States
AU: Flechtner, F
EM: flechtne@gfz-potsdam.de
AF: GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Department 1: Geodesy and Remote Sensing c/o DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, Wessling, D-82230 Germany
AU: Watkins, M M
EM: michael.m.watkins@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, M/S 301-125L, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AB: A time sequence of approximately monthly estimates of the Earth's gravity field, derived from the Gravity Recovery And Climate Mission (GRACE) science data, have been recently made available to the user community. In addition to these monthly estimates, a long-term mean gravity field has also been made available. These gravity field products are generated by the GRACE Science Data System team elements at the UT-CSR, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and at GFZ-Potsdam. In this presentation, we briefly describe the gravity field processing standards and methodology in use at UT-CSR. The traditional linearized least-squares implementation of gravity field determination from GRACE tracking data is reviewed with particular attention the to a-priori gravitational force models in use. The evolution of GRACE mission since its launch in March 2002 is then discussed. The main mission events, and the flight dynamic profile (pointing, inter-satellite separation, ground-track evolution, etc) are presented - with the purpose of aiding the interpretation and assessment of the gravity field product quality. The presentation closes with the description of the likely future evolution of the flight profile.
UR: http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace
DE: 1214 Geopotential theory and determination
DE: 1241 Satellite orbits
DE: 1294 Instruments and techniques
SC: Geodesy [G]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting