Uncertainty of thermosphere mass density observations derived from accelerometer and GNSS tracking data

Thermosphere mass density and crosswind can be derived from accelerometer and GNSS tracking data. However, present datasets are often provided without comprehensive uncertainty specifications. We present a newly developed method that propagates measurement noise and errors in the satellite specification, thermosphere models, and radiation flux...

Gas-surface interactions modelling influence on satellite aerodynamics and thermosphere mass density

The satellite acceleration data from the CHAMP, GRACE, GOCE, and Swarm missions provide detailed information on the thermosphere density over the last two decades. Recent work on reducing errors in modelling the spacecraft geometry has greatly reduced scale differences between the thermosphere data sets from these missions. However, residual...