The key issues of the conjunction of European and Chinese next-generation gravity missions for Earth's gravity field determination

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Roland Pail
• Subject Area: Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics, Cartography
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 448559383

Concrete plans for next-generation gravity missions have been established in China, Europe and also US. They are mainly based on satellite in-line pair concepts similar to GRACE and GRACE-Follow On. In previous studies it could be shown that significant improvements over single-pairs can be achieved when jointly analysing double-pair or multi-pair concepts, which is mainly due to their enhanced capabilities to reduce temporal aliasing effects. In a joint and concerted effort of German and Chinese project partners, the main objective of this proposal is to design an optimum satellite constellation of Chinese next-generation gravity missions such as TianQin-2, and a European NGGM to be implemented by ESA. Based on known key parameters of the TianQin-2 mission regarding orbits and instrument performance, the optimization shall mainly be done to optimize the science return when considering these missions as a constellation. Additionally it shall be taken into account, that a third satellite pair might be implemented by NASA, so in the ideal case three satellite pairs could fly in parallel in the near future. Methodology developments tailored to this very concrete set-up shall be performed, and the added value for gravity field applications shall be analyzed and quantified. Results of the project will pave the way towards a joint exploitation of future space infrastructure, will support the mission planning and design of international space agencies, and will quantify the benefit of such an international cooperation on NGGMs for several geoscientific applications with societal relevance.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: China
• Partner Organisation: National Natural Science Foundation of China
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Zhicai Luo