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GRACE Time-Variable Gravity Field Recovery Using an Improved Energy Balance Formalism

Shang, Kun
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437393586

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Geodetic Science and Surveying.
Earth's gravity is continuously varying with respect to time due primarily to mass transports within the Earth system and external gravitational forcing. A new formalism based on energy conservation principle for time-variable gravity field recovery using satellite gravimetry has been developed and yields more accurate estimation of in-situ geopotential difference observables using K-Band Ranging (KBR) measurements from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) twin-satellite mission. The new approach can preserve more time-variable gravity information sensed by KBR range-rate measurements and reduce orbit error as compared to previous energy balance studies. Results based on analysis of more than 10 years of GRACE data indicate that the estimated geopotential differences agree well with the predicted values from official Level 2 solutions: with much higher correlation of 0.9, as compared to 0.5-0.8 reported by previous energy balance studies. This study demonstrates that the new approach is more flexible for both global and regional temporal gravity recovery, leading to the first independent GRACE monthly solution series based on energy conservation principle, which is comparable to the results from different approach. The developed formalism is applicable to the general case of low-low satellite-to-satellite radiometric or laser interferometric tracking measurements, such as GRACE Follow-on or other Next Generation Gravity Field missions, for efficient retrieval and studies of Earth's mass transport evolutions. The regional gravity analysis over Greenland reveals that a substantially higher temporal resolution is achievable at 10 or 11-day interval from GRACE data, as compared to the official monthly solutions, but without the compromise of spatial resolution, nor the need to use regularization or post-processing. Studies of the terrestrial and ground water storage change over North China Plain show high correlation in sub-monthly scale, among the 11-day time-variable gravity solutions from this study, in-situ data, and hydrologic and atmospheric models. The 11-day solutions with 1-day step successfully capture the surface mass change caused by the rapid snow and ice accumulation and melting during the extreme weather event of 2008 Southeast China snow and ice storm. These results demonstrated that sub-monthly solutions from GRACE can provide an additional constraint to understand the rapid mass transport and the dynamic processes for both extreme weather events and short-time surface and ground water monitoring, which may potentially improve our understanding of various mass transports within the Earth system, and applicable to societal services such as disaster response or mitigation, and water resources management.
C. K. Shum, Dr. (Advisor)
Michael Bevis, Dr. (Committee Member)
Christopher Jekeli, Dr. (Committee Member)
Franklin Schwartz, Dr. (Committee Member)
161 p.
Earth; Geophysics; Hydrology; Water Resource Management

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Shang, K. (2015). GRACE Time-Variable Gravity Field Recovery Using an Improved Energy Balance Formalism [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437393586

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Shang, Kun. GRACE Time-Variable Gravity Field Recovery Using an Improved Energy Balance Formalism. 2015. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437393586.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Shang, Kun. "GRACE Time-Variable Gravity Field Recovery Using an Improved Energy Balance Formalism." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437393586

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1437393586
277
© 2015, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License GRACE Time-Variable Gravity Field Recovery Using an Improved Energy Balance Formalism by Kun Shang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.