A spaceborne gravity gradiometer concept based on cold atom interferometers for measuring Earth's gravity field

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel spaceborne gravity gradiometer using cold atom interferometers to improve measurement accuracy of Earth's gravity field beyond current missions like GOCE and GRACE.

Contribution

It introduces a new concept utilizing cold atom interferometers for space gravity measurements, aiming for higher precision and better detection of gravity field variations.

Findings

Potential for higher accuracy than GOCE

Enhanced detection of time-variable gravity signals

Low white noise spectral behavior

Abstract

We propose a concept for future space gravity missions using cold atom interferometers for measuring the diagonal elements of the gravity gradient tensor and the spacecraft angular velocity. The aim is to achieve better performance than previous space gravity missions due to a very low white noise spectral behavior and a very high common mode rejection, with the ultimate goals of determining the fine structures of the gravity field with higher accuracy than GOCE and detecting time-variable signals in the gravity field better than GRACE.