ESA’s Earth Explorer gravity satellite on show   GOCE in preparation at Thales Alenia Space facility in Turin, Italy. ESA's gravity mission is dedicated to measuring the Earth's gravity field and modelling the geoid with unprecedented accuracy and spatial resolution. GOCE will advance our understanding of ocean circulation – which plays a major role in climate regulation, sea-level change and Earth interior processes such as volcanism and earthquakes.   GOCE in preparation at Thales Alenia Space facility in Turin, Italy. ESA's gravity mission is dedicated to measuring the Earth's gravity field and modelling the geoid with unprecedented accuracy and spatial resolution. GOCE will advance our understanding of ocean circulation – which plays a major role in climate regulation, sea-level change and Earth interior processes such as volcanism and earthquakes.   ESA's gravity mission GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) is dedicated to measuring the Earth's gravity field and modelling the geoid with unprecedented accuracy and spatial resolution. Because the gravitational signal is stronger closer to the Earth, GOCE has been designed to fly in a particularly low orbit - at an altitude of just 250 km.   To accurately measure the Earth's gravity field, the GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite is equipped with a core instrument called the Electrostatic Gradiometer, which consists of three pairs of identical ultra-sensitive accelerometers, mounted on three mutually orthogonal 'gradiometer arms'. However, an advance mission such as GOCE requires that the satellite and the system of control elements form one 'gravity-measuring device', which means that there is virtually no division between the satellite and the instruments. Release date: 14 February 2008