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Space Gravity Missions: CHAMP, GRACE, GRACE-FO, and GOCE, Satellite Projects

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Encyclopedia of Geodesy

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Definition

The launch of satellite gravity missions, i.e., CHAMP (Challenging Minisatellite Payload; Reigber et al. 2002), GRACE (Gravity Recovery Experiment; Tapley et al. 2004), GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer; Drinkwater et al. 2003), and GRACE-FO (GRACE-Follow On; Landerer et al. 2020) have revolutionized our knowledge of the global Earth’s gravity field and its temporal changes, which are related to geophysical processes of mass redistribution on our planet (Fig. 1). Since they are the only measurement technique, which can directly observe mass changes on a global scale, they are a unique observational system for monitoring mass transport in the Earth system.

Still 20 years ago, this knowledge was limited (a) spatially, mainly due to a very heterogeneous distribution and quality of terrestrial gravity observations and (b) temporally, due to a lack of repeat measurements. The great advantage of satellite-based techniques is to observe the Earth’s...

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  1. Institute of Astronomical and Physical Geodesy, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany

    Roland Pail

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  1. Department of Geomatics Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Michael G. Sideris

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Pail, R. (2023). Space Gravity Missions: CHAMP, GRACE, GRACE-FO, and GOCE, Satellite Projects. In: Sideris, M.G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geodesy. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_29-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_29-2

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  1. Latest

    Space Gravity Missions: CHAMP, GRACE, GRACE-FO, and GOCE, Satellite Projects
    Published:
    17 March 2023

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_29-2

  2. Original

    CHAMP-, GRACE-, GOCE-Satellite Projects
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    21 May 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_29-1

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