• → European Space Agency

      • Space for Europe
      • Space News
      • Space in Images
      • Space in Videos
    • About Us

      • Welcome to ESA
      • DG's News and Views
      • For Member State Delegations
      • Business with ESA
      • ESA Exhibitions
      • ESA Publications
      • Careers at ESA
    • Our Activities

      • Space News
      • Observing the Earth
      • Human Spaceflight
      • Launchers
      • Navigation
      • Space Science
      • Space Engineering
      • Operations
      • Technology
      • Telecommunications & Integrated Applications
    • For Public

    • For Media

      • Media
      • ESA TV
      • Videos for professionals
      • Photos
    • For Educators

    • For Kids

    • ESA

    • Observing the Earth

    • Living Planet

    • Earth Explorers

    • Meteorological missions

    • ESA's Living Planet Programme
    • About ESA's Living Planet Programme
    • Earth Explorers
    • GOCE
    • SMOS
    • CryoSat-2
    • Swarm
    • ADM-Aeolus
    • EarthCARE
    • Future missions
    • Campaigns
    • Multimedia
    • Living Planet images
    • Living Planet videos
    • Help
    • Services
    • Subscribe

    ESA > Our Activities > Observing the Earth > The Living Planet Programme

    Earth Gravity Field from Space - from Sensors to Earth Sciences

    Earth Gravity Field from Space - from Sensors to Earth Sciences
    12 December 2003

    In March 2002, a workshop on Earth Gravity Field from Space was held at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern, Switzerland. Following the success of this event, a book has just been published in the form of a collection of papers resulting from this workshop.

    The book, ‘Earth Gravity Field from Space – from Sensors to Earth Sciences’, assesses the latest developments in research on the Earth’s gravity field from space. “The preparation of the book is an important milestone as it brought together top scientists in the fields of satellite geodesy and Earth sciences. It provides an extremely useful snapshot of the current ‘state of the art’ in making satellite gravity measurements, and in terms of the benefits of gravity data in the study of our planet Earth”, said Mark Drinkwater, one of the Editors and ESA Project Scientists working on the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) mission.

    Artist's impression of the GOCE satellite in orbit

    The book is a result of the workshop in Switzerland, where around 50 experts from the fields of satellite geodesy, gravity field modelling, solid Earth physics and oceanography, gathered to assess new developments in gravity field research as a consequence of the space missions currently in orbit or soon to be launched. The satellite gravity missions CHAMP (2000-present) and GRACE (2002-2006), both currently in orbit, have already made significant advances in the global gravity field model, and GRACE is, for the first time, ‘weighing’ month-to-month variations in the Earth’s gravity field.


    A pre-CHAMP/GRACE/GOCE geoid model (EGM96)

    The ESA GOCE mission, due for launch in 2006, will further enhance our knowledge of the Earth’s gravity field and geoid by orders of magnitude. Together, these exciting new data open up a whole range of fascinating new possibilities for solid Earth physics, oceanography, geodesy and sea-level research. This new generation of Earth gravity missions each combine new sensor concepts for gravity field measurement, orbit and attitude control and orbit determination.

    Earth Gravity Field from Space – from Sensors to Earth Sciences is the latest publication in the ISSI Space Science Series. The book contains more than 37 peer reviewed scientific papers and is divided into 7 sections: Precise Orbit Determination and Gravity Field Modelling; Solid Earth Physics; Ocean Circulation, Geodesy, Sea Level, and Future Concepts. The final section is dedicated to ESA’s GOCE mission and the new era in Earth Sciences that is made possible by the new gravity missions.

    Rate this

    Views

    Share

    • Currently 0 out of 5 Stars.
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5
    Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

    Thank you for rating!

    You have already rated this page, you can only rate it once!

    Your rating has been changed, thanks for rating!

    70
    Tweet
    • Related links
    • Earth Gravity Field from Space - from Sensors to Earth Sciences. Kluwer Academic Publishers
    • International Space Science Institute - Space Science Book Series
    • Earth Explorers
    • GOCE

    Connect with us

    • RSS
    • Youtube
    • Twitter
    • Flickr
    • G+
    • Facebook
    • Livestream
    • Subscribe
    • App Store
    • LATEST ARTICLES
    • · Earth Explorers take centre stage …
    • · The fast winds of Venus are gettin…
    • · ExoMars 2016 set to complete const…
    • · Herschel ends operations as orbiti…
    • · Europe’s largest spaceship reache…
    • FAQ

    • Jobs at ESA

    • Site Map

    • Contacts

    • Terms and conditions