Gravity field contribution analysis of GOCE gravitational gradient components

A gravity field model is computed from the four accurate gravitational gradient components of GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer), combined with the analysis of the kinematic orbits, and some moderate constraint (or stabilization) in the polar areas where no observation from GOCE is available due to the orbit geometry. The normal matrix of each component is computed individually in order to study its contribution to the combined solution. The results show that the contribution of V-zz is the largest, with an average value of 32.74% of the total solution; the second and the third largest are V-zz and V-yy, with average values of 28.04% and 26.08%, respectively; the component V-xz contributes 11.81%. Validation with external data shows that each component has its characteristic value and that the information content of the component V-xz is not negligible and should be included for gravity field recovery. The orbit part as derived from high-low satellite-to-satellite tracking (SST-hl) to the GPS contributes mostly to the coefficients below degree and order (d/o) 20, and to non-zonal coefficients from d/o 20 to 80. The mean value of the contribution of the polar stabilization is the smallest with a value of 0.22%, nevertheless it is important. In addition to the contribution analysis in terms of the normal matrices, each individual component of the gradiometer has been combined with SST and polar stabilization, to give a set of single component gravity field models. These partially combined solutions are compared to the fully combined solution in terms of geoid differences. They show that the partially combined solution with V-zz is closest to the complete solution. Even closer is a combination with V-xx and V-yy. In addition to the GOCE-only solution, a GOCE-GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) combined gravity field model is derived and the information content of GOCE and an available set of normal equations of GRACE are investigated. Results show that, as expected, GRACE dominates the solution below degree 90 and GOCE above degree 140.