11:15 AM - 11:30 AM
[G02-2-04] Cold Atom Interferometers Used In Space (CAIUS) for measuring the Earth's gravity field
In the past decades, it has been shown that atomic quantum sensors are a newly emerging technology that can be used for measuring the Earth's gravity field. Whereas classical accelerometers typically suffer from high noise at low frequencies, Cold Atom Interferometers are highly accurate over the entire frequency range.
There are two ways of making use of that technology: one is a gravity gradiometer concept, which relies on a high common mode rejection that relaxes the drag free control compare to GOCE mission; and the other one is in a low-low satellite-to-satellite ranging concept to correct the spectrally colored noise of the electrostatic accelerometers in the lower frequencies. We will present for both concepts the expected improvement in measurement accuracy and for the gravity gradiometer concept the expected improvement of Earth gravity field models, taking into account the different type of measurements (e.g. single vs. 3 axis, integration time, etc.) and different mission parameters such as attitude control, altitude of the satellite, time duration of the mission, etc.
There are two ways of making use of that technology: one is a gravity gradiometer concept, which relies on a high common mode rejection that relaxes the drag free control compare to GOCE mission; and the other one is in a low-low satellite-to-satellite ranging concept to correct the spectrally colored noise of the electrostatic accelerometers in the lower frequencies. We will present for both concepts the expected improvement in measurement accuracy and for the gravity gradiometer concept the expected improvement of Earth gravity field models, taking into account the different type of measurements (e.g. single vs. 3 axis, integration time, etc.) and different mission parameters such as attitude control, altitude of the satellite, time duration of the mission, etc.