Calibration and validation of individual GOCE accelerometers by precise orbit determination

The European Space Agency Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circular Explorer (GOCE) carries a gradiometer consisting of three pairs of accelerometers in an orthogonal triad. Precise GOCE science orbit solutions (PSO), which are based on satellite-to-satellite tracking observations by the Global Positioning System and which are claimed to be...

Validation of GOCE gravity field models by means of orbit residuals and geoid comparisons

Three GOCE-based gravity field solutions have been computed by ESA’s high-level processing facility and were released to the user community. All models are accompanied by variance-covariance information resulting either from the least squares procedure or a Monte-Carlo approach. In order to obtain independent external quality parameters and to...