Satellite-to-satellite tracking and satellite gravity gradiometry (Advanced techniques for high-resolution geopotential field determination)

The purpose of satellite-to-satellite tracking (SST) and/or satellite gravity gradiometry (SGG) is to determine the gravitational field on and outside the Earth's surface from given gradients of the gravitational potential and/or the gravitational field at satellite altitude. In this paper both satellite techniques are analysed and characterized from a mathematical point of view. Uniqueness results are formulated. The justification is given for approximating the external gravitational field by finite linear combination of certain gradient fields (for example, gradient fields of single-poles or multi-poles) consistent to a given set of SGG and/or SST data. A strategy of modelling the gravitational field from satellite data within a multiscale concept is described; illustrations based on the EGM96 model are given.