Scale Factor Determination for the GRACE-Follow On Laser Ranging Interferometer including Thermal Coupling

Misfeldt, Malte; Müller, Vitali; Müller, L.; Wegener, Henry; Heinzel, Gerhard

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2207.11470

Cited by 1 publication

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“…The conceptual design of the GRACE-FO laser ranging system was described early in [18], with updates during the instrument development [31,32], e.g., on the beam steering [20], retroreflector [33], phasemeter [34] and laser link acquisition [35][36][37]. The inflight LRI performance was addressed by [19], with further analysis on tilt-to-length coupling in [38], on steering mirror data [39] and with results on the scale factor [40,41] being prepared.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing GRACE-FO KBR and LRI Ranging Data with Focus on Carrier Frequency Variations

et al. 2022

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The GRACE Follow-On satellite mission measures distance variations between its two satellites in order to derive monthly gravity field maps, indicating mass variability on Earth on a scale of a few 100 km originating from hydrology, seismology, climatology and other sources. This mission hosts two ranging instruments, a conventional microwave system based on K(a)-band ranging (KBR) and a novel laser ranging instrument (LRI), both relying on interferometric phase readout. In this paper, we show how the phase measurements can be converted into range data using a time-dependent carrier frequency (or wavelength) that takes into account potential intraday variability in the microwave or laser frequency. Moreover, we analyze the KBR-LRI residuals and discuss which error and noise contributors limit the residuals at high and low Fourier frequencies. It turns out that the agreement between KBR and LRI biased range observations can be slightly improved by considering intraday carrier frequency variations in the processing. Although the effect is probably small enough to have little relevance for gravity field determination at the current precision level, this analysis is of relevance for detailed instrument characterization and potentially for future more precise missions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing GRACE-FO KBR and LRI Ranging Data with Focus on Carrier Frequency Variations

et al. 2022

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Scale Factor Determination for the GRACE-Follow On Laser Ranging Interferometer including Thermal Coupling

Abstract: This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

Cited by 1 publication

References 29 publications

Comparing GRACE-FO KBR and LRI Ranging Data with Focus on Carrier Frequency Variations

Comparing GRACE-FO KBR and LRI Ranging Data with Focus on Carrier Frequency Variations

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