The GFZ GRACE RL06 Monthly Gravity Field Time Series: Processing Details and Quality Assessment

Time-variable gravity field models derived from observations of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, whose science operations phase ended in June 2017 after more than 15 years, enabled a multitude of studies of Earth’s surface mass transport processes and climate change. The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), routinely processing such monthly gravity fields as part of the GRACE Science Data System, has reprocessed the complete GRACE mission and released an improved GFZ GRACE RL06 monthly gravity field time series. This study provides an insight into the processing strategy of GFZ RL06 which has been considerably changed with respect to previous GFZ GRACE releases, and modifications relative to the precursor GFZ RL05a are described. The quality of the RL06 gravity field models is analyzed and discussed both in the spectral and spatial domain in comparison to the RL05a time series. All results indicate significant improvements of about 40% in terms of reduced noise. It is also shown that the GFZ RL06 time series is a step forward in terms of consistency, and that errors of the gravity field coefficients are more realistic. These findings are confirmed as well by independent validation of the monthly GRACE models, as done in this work by means of ocean bottom pressure in situ observations and orbit tests with the GOCE satellite. Thus, the GFZ GRACE RL06 time series allows for a better quantification of mass changes in the Earth system.

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Earth's surface mass transport derived from GRACE, evaluated by GPS, ICESat, hydrological modeling and altimetry satellite orbits

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) delivered the most accurate quantification of global mass variations with monthly temporal resolution on large spatial scales. Future gravity missions will take advantage of improved measurement technologies, such as enhanced orbit configurations and tracking systems, as well as reduced temporal aliasing errors. In order to achieve the latter, sub-monthly to daily innovative models are computed. In addition, non-conventional methods based on radial basis functions (RBFs) and mascons will give the ability to compute models in regional and global representations as well. We show that the RBF modeling technique can be used for processing GRACE data yielding global gravity field models which fit independent reference values at the same level as commonly accepted global geopotential models based on spherical harmonics. The present study compares for the first time a complete global series of solutions in order to quantify recent ice mass changes. We further compare the ice-induced crustal deformations due to the dynamic loading of the crustal layer with the Global Positioning System (GPS) uplift measurements along Greenland's coastline. Available mass change estimates based on Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) laser altimetry measurements both in Greenland and Antarctica are used to assess the GRACE results. A comparison of GRACE time series with hydrological modeling for various basin extensions reveals overall high correlation to surface and groundwater storage compartments. The forward computation of satellite orbits for altimetry satellites such as Envisat, Jason-1 and Jason-2 compares the performance of GRACE time-variable gravity fields with models including time variability, such as EIGEN-6S4.

Earth's surface mass transport derived from GRACE, evaluated by GPS, ICESat, hydrological modeling and altimetry satellite orbits

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) has delivered the most accurate quantification of global mass variations with monthly temporal resolution on large spatial scales. Future gravity missions will take advantage of improved measurement technologies such as enhanced orbit configurations and tracking systems as well as reduced temporal aliasing errors and latencies. In order to facilitate the usage of sub-monthly to daily innovate models, mass equivalent representations are computed. In addition, non-conventional processing techniques based on spherical radial basis functions (RBF) and mascons will give the ability to compute models in regional and global representations as well. The present study compares for the first time a complete global series of daily mass equivalent solutions obtained by the RBF method with conventional solutions in order to quantify recent ice-mass changes. We further compare the ice-induced crustal deformations due to the dynamic loading of the crustal layer with the Global Positioning System (GPS) uplift measurements along Greenland's coastline. Available mass change estimates based on ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite) laser altimetry measurements both in Greenland and Antarctica are used to asses the GRACE results. A comparison of GRACE time series with hydrological modeling for various basin extensions reveals overall high correlation to surface and groundwater storage compartments. The forward computation of satellite orbits for altimetry satellites such as Envisat, Jason-1 and Jason-2 compares the performance of GRACE time variable gravity fields with models including time variability, such as EIGEN-6S4.