GOCE: mission accomplished
Abstract
Launched in March 2009 into an extremely low Earth orbit on an originally 20-months mission to map the quasi-static gravity field, the GOCE satellite has more than tripled its expected measurement return. Already the lowest orbiting research satellite, since mid-2012 GOCE has undergone a series of orbit lowerings in order to further maximise the signal content (both in amplitude and scale) of the gravity gradient and hi-lo satellite-to-satellite observations. Since June 2013 the equatorial altitude is stable at a mere 223.88 km. The culmination point of the mission is expected to be reached in late 2013 when the satellite finally runs out of Xenon gas for its air drag compensation system and soon thereafter re-enters the atmosphere. This contribution describes the science return of GOCE in its final phase. It provides an overview of the impact of GOCE in the earth sciences, incl. geodesy, oceanography, solid earth and aeronomy. Plans for continued exploitation of GOCE data - within and outside the context of the European Space Agency programmes - will be presented. Finally, we expect to give an account of the science that has been achieved during the de-orbiting campaign.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.G53C..06F
- Keywords:
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- 1200 GEODESY AND GRAVITY;
- 4532 OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL General circulation;
- 8100 TECTONOPHYSICS;
- 0394 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE Instruments and techniques