Assessments of GOCE satellite tracking and gravity gradiometry data

Since May 2010, two months of the GOCE level-1b and level-2 data have been made available to the user community. This paper will report on results from a preliminary analysis of that data. A brief report on the precision orbit determination will be presented first. Following that, an assessment of the new information in the gravity gradient dataset, relative to what we know from GRACE and terrestrial gravity data, will be presented. The presentation will conclude with an assessment of the potential contributions of the GOCE dataset to a combined GRACE/GOCE gravity field model.