HR: 0800h
AN: SA51A-1127    [Abstracts]
TI: Atmospheric Neutral Density From Accelerometer Data of GRACE
AU: * Cheng, M
EM: cheng@csr.utexas.edu
AF: Center for Space Research,UT/Austin, 3925 W. Braker Ln. #200, Austin, TX 78759 United States
AB: The GRACE mission is dedicated to measuring the Earth gravity field from space, the high accuracy accelerometers (ACC) are particular well suited for exploring the neutral density variations. The ACC data from two GRACE satellites over the 3-year period since April 2002 were analyzed to infer the total atmospheric neutral density. Comparison show interesting feature in the density variations and significant deviations of GRACE derived density from the current models at the high latitudes, in particular over the polar region, which associated with the geomagnetic activity. With the high resolution with spatial and temporal coverage, the GRACE accelerometer data can provide a very significant improvement in understanding of the neutral density variations at the altitude of 300-500 km. This paper will present detail analysis of GRACE ACC data and comparison of the neutral density from GRACE and current models.
DE: 0355 Thermosphere: composition and chemistry
DE: 0358 Thermosphere: energy deposition (3369)
DE: 1241 Satellite geodesy: technical issues (6994, 7969)
DE: 1294 Instruments and techniques
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005