Analysis of attitude errors in GRACE range-rate residuals - a comparison between SCA1B and the reprocessed attitude fused product (SCA1B +ACC1B)

TL;DR

This paper compares the standard SCA1B attitude dataset with a reprocessed version combining angular accelerations, demonstrating that the reprocessed data significantly improves attitude accuracy and reduces residuals in GRACE inter-satellite range measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a reprocessed attitude dataset that enhances accuracy over the standard data and analyzes its impact on range residuals in GRACE.

Findings

Reprocessed attitude data shows significant accuracy improvement.

Reduced residuals in inter-satellite range measurements.

Enhanced quality of gravity field models.

Abstract

The precision of the attitude in the inter-satellite ranging missions like GRACE is one of the important requirement. It is required not only for the mission performance but also for the good quality of the gravity field models which are estimated from the inter-satellite ranging measurements. Here we present a comparative study of the analysis of two attitude datasets. One of them is the standardSCA1Brelease 2 datasets provided by JPL NASA and another is the reprocessed attitude computed atTU Graz by combining the angular accelerations and the standardSCA1Brelease2 datasets. Further, we also present the impact of the attitude datasets on the inter-satellite range measurements by analyzing their residuals. Our analysis reveals the significant improvement in the attitude due to the reprocessed product and reduced value of residuals computed from the reprocessed attitude.