- Title
- Along‐orbit analysis of GRACE Follow‐On inter‐satellite laser ranging measurements for sub‐monthly surface mass variations
- Creator
- Ghobadi-Far, Khosro; Han, Shin-Chan; McCullough, Christopher M.; Wiese, David N.; Ray, Richard D.; Sauber, Jeanne; Shihora, Linus; Dobslaw, Henryk
- Relation
- ARC.DP160104095 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP160104095
- Relation
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth Vol. 127, Issue 2, no. e2021JB022983
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2021JB022983
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2022
- Description
- We examined the sensitivity of GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) laser ranging interferometer (LRI) measurements to sub-monthly time-variable gravity (TVG) signals caused by transient, high-frequency mass changes in the Earth system. GRACE-FO LRI provides complementary inter-satellite ranging measurements with higher precision over a wider range of frequencies than the baseline K-band microwave ranging system. The common approach for studying mass variation relies on the inverted TVG or mascon solutions over a period of, for example, one month or 10 days which are adversely affected by temporal aliasing and/or smoothing. In this article, we present the alternative along-orbit analysis methodology in terms of line-of-sight gravity difference (LGD) to fully exploit the higher precision LRI measurements for examination of sub-monthly mass changes. The discrepancy between “instantaneous” LGD LRI observations and monthly-mean LGD (from Level-2 data) at satellite altitude indicates the sub-monthly gravitational variability not captured by monthly-mean solutions. In conjunction with the satellite ocean altimetry observations, high-frequency non-tidal atmosphere and ocean models, and hydrology models, we show that the LGD LRI observations detect the high-frequency oceanic mass variability in the Argentine Basin and the Gulf of Carpentaria, and sub-monthly variations in surface (river) water in the Amazon Basin. We demonstrate the benefits gained from repeat ground track analysis of GRACE-FO LRI data in the case of the Amazon surface water flow. The along-orbit analysis methodology based on LGD LRI time series presented here is especially suitable for quantifying temporal and spatial evolution of extreme, rapidly changing mass variations.
- Subject
- GRACE Follow-On; line-of-sight gravity difference (LGD); laser ranging interferometer (LRI); sub-monthly mass change; time-variable gravity
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1478172
- Identifier
- uon:50126
- Identifier
- ISSN:2169-9313
- Rights
- © 2022. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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