Twelve Years of High Frequency Absolute Gravity Measurements at the UK’s Space Geodesy Facility: Systematic Signals and Comparison with SLR Heights

Abstract

AbstractAbsolute gravity measurements taken on a near-weekly basis at a single location is a rarity. Twelve years of data at the UK’s Space Geodesy Facility (SGF) provides evidence to show that the application of results from international comparisons of absolute gravimeters should be applied to data and are critical to the interpretation of theSGF gravity time series of data from 2007 to 2019. Though residual biases in the data are seen. The SGF time series comprises near weekly data, with exceptions for manufacturer services and participation in international instrument comparisons. Each data set comprises hourly data taken over 1 day, with between 100 and 200 drops per hour. Environmental modelling indicates that the annual groundwater variation at SGFof some 2 m influences the gravity data by 3.1 μGal, based upon some measured and estimated soil parameters. The soil parameters were also used in the calculation of the effect of an additional telescope dome, built above the gravity laboratory, and have been shown to be realistic. Sited in close proximity to the long-established satellite laser ranging (SLR) system and the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) the absolute gravimetry (AG) measurements provide a complimentary geodetic technique, which is non space-based. The SLR-derived height time series provides an independent measurement of vertical motion at the site which may be used to assess the AG results, which are impacted by ground motion as well as mass changes above and below the instruments.