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...

Using the GOCE star trackers for validating the calibration of its accelerometers

A method for validating the calibration parameters of the six accelerometers on board the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) from star tracker observations that was originally tested by an end-to-end simulation, has been updated and applied to real data from GOCE. It is shown that the method provides estimates of...

GOCE gradiometer: Estimation of biases and scale factors of all six individual accelerometers by precise orbit determination

A method has been implemented and tested for estimating bias and scale factor parameters for all six individual accelerometers that will fly on-board of GOCE and together form the so-called gradiometer. The method is based on inclusion of the individual accelerometer observations in precise orbit determinations, opposed to the baseline method...