[G02-2] Gravimetry

[G02-2-03] Evaluation of the contribution of optical clocks to gravity field modelling

^○Juergen Mueller, Hu Wu (Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, Hannover, Germany)

In the past decade, the performance of optical clocks and frequency transfer techniques have been largely improved. These technical developments allow to measure relative frequency differences with an inaccuracy of 1 x 10^-18 in the near future. According to the formula of relativistic gravitational redshift, the frequency difference can be transformed to a geopotential difference with an error of 0.1 m^2/s^2, i.e. approximately 1 cm in terms of height changes. Hence, optical clocks present a new and promising technique for determining the Earth's gravity field and related quantities.

In this context, the present work aims to evaluate the contribution of optical clocks to gravity field modelling in a combined analysis of different types of gravimetric observations. Here, gravity anomalies, gravity gradients and potential differences are used for a simulation study, taking Germany as a test case. With this simulation study, we attempt to answer the following research questions: 1) How much can optical clocks help improving gravity field recovery? 2) How many clock measurements are required to improve a combined gravity field model? 3) How should a clock network be arranged to achieve an optimal gravity field solution?