Expected Precision of Gravity Gradient Recovered from Ka-Band Radar Interferometer Observations and Impact of Instrument Errors

Abstract

Full tensor of gravity gradients contains extremely large amounts of information, which is one of the most important sources for research on recovery seafloor topography and underwater matching navigation. The calculation and accuracy of the full tensor of gravity gradients are worth studying. The Ka-band interferometric radar altimeter (KaRIn) of surface water and ocean topography (SWOT) mission enables high spatial resolution of sea surface height (SSH), which would be beneficial for the calculation of gravity gradients. However, there are no clear accuracy results for the gravity gradients (the gravity gradient tensor represents the second-order derivative of the gravity potential) recovered based on SWOT data. This study evaluated the possible precision of gravity gradients using the discretization method based on simulated SWOT wide-swath data and investigated the impact of instrument errors. The data are simulated based on the sea level anomaly data provided by the European Space Agency. The instrument errors are simulated based on the power spectrum data provided in the SWOT error budget document. Firstly, the full tensor of gravity gradients (SWOT_GGT) is calculated based on deflections of the vertical and gravity anomaly. The distinctions of instrument errors on the ascending and descending orbits are also taken into account in the calculation. The precision of the Tzz component is evaluated by the vertical gravity gradient model provided by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. All components of SWOT_GGT are validated by the gravity gradients model, which is calculated by the open-source software GrafLab based on spherical harmonic. The Tzz component has the poorest precision among all the components. The reason for the worst accuracy of the Tzz component may be that it is derived by Txx and Tyy, Tzz would have a larger error than Txx and Tyy. The precision of all components is better than 6 E. Among the various errors, the effect of phase error and KaRIn error (random error caused by interferometric radar) on the results is greater than 2 E. The effect of the other four errors on the results is about 0.5 E. Utilizing multi-cycle data for the full tensor of gravity gradients recovery can suppress the effect of errors.