# Concept study and preliminary design of a cold atom interferometer for space gravity gradiometry

## TL;DR

This paper explores the design of a space-based cold atom interferometer for gravity gradiometry, aiming to improve Earth's gravitational field mapping through high-sensitivity measurements.

## Contribution

It presents a detailed concept study and preliminary design of a cold atom interferometer instrument for space gravity measurements, including subsystem analysis and mission scenario evaluation.

## Key findings

- Design of a high-sensitivity gravity gradiometer using cold atom interferometry
- Performance estimates for Earth's gravity field recovery
- Requirements for sensor subsystems and mission parameters

## Abstract

We study a space-based gravity gradiometer based on cold atom interferometry and its potential for the Earth's gravitational field mapping. The instrument architecture has been proposed in [Carraz et al., Microgravity Science and Technology 26, 139 (2014)] and enables high-sensitivity measurements of gravity gradients by using atom interferometers in a differential accelerometer configuration. We present the design of the instrument including its subsystems and analyze the mission scenario, for which we derive the expected instrument performances, the requirements on the sensor and its key subsystems, and the expected impact on the recovery of the Earth gravity field.