REAL-GOCE – DATA ANALYSIS AND APPLICATIONS OF THE SATELLITE GRAVITY GRADIENT MISSION GOCE

REAL-GOCE is a cooperative research project within the BMBF/DFG Geotechnologien Programme, Theme 2 “Observation of the System Earth from Space”. GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) is the first mission to be adopted in the frame of the Living Planet Programme by the European Space Agency (ESA). The primary goal of this mission is the determination of the static component of the Earth’s gravity field with unprecedented global accuracy and resolution of 1-2 cm for the geoid and 1 mGal for gravity anomalies at a global scale and at a wavelength of at least 100 km. Key applications of high-resolution global gravity field models are the modelling of interacting geophysical and oceanographic processes, which shall contribute to a better understanding of the Earth system. Additionally, a high-precision geoid will enable geodesists to unify and connect the currently heterogeneous national height reference systems.

In the frame of REAL-GOCE, the project partners strive for understanding and exploiting the new observation type of gravity gradients to the best possible extent, and to make benefit of their signal content for a number of applications. In this presentation, an overview of the key activities within REAL-GOCE and the main results shall be addressed. This involves the GOCE gradient analysis and gravity field computation both on regional and on global scale applying innovative approaches, GOCE validation both on gravity gradient level, but also by the computation of time-mean ocean circulation and using the GOCE geoid, and the combination of GOCE gravity models with complementary gravity field data. This is done both on different scales: on global level high-resolution combination gravity field models are generated, while on regional scale the impact of GOCE to the German quasi-geoid solution and the height system is analyzed. Selected examples and preliminary results will prove the high performance and added value of GOCE compared to available global gravity field knowledge, and will demonstrate the achievements and progress of the REAL-GOCE project partners.