An Improved Next Generation Gravity Mission

Abstract

There is an opportunity to make a major reduction in the acceleration noise level for the first Next Generation Gravity Mission by replacing the accelerometers used on the GRACE Follow-On Mission by a highly simplified version of the Gravitational Reference Sensors flown very successfully on the LISA Pathfinder mission of ESA. The reduced measurement noise level can make possible much-improved measurements of the short-period and short-wavelength variations in the geopotential. This would be particularly from the along-track analysis of the results, which can permit repeat measurements about half a day apart along ground tracks within 200 km of each other over a substantial part of the globe. Such a mission would permit considerably improved testing of geophysical models for the geopotential variations due to changes in the Earth’s mass distribution.