The success of a satellite mission is dependent on the accuracy of the measurement of its mass properties. Mass properties of a satellite viz. static and dynamic unbalance play a vital role in during satellite launching and attitude and orbital control. Satellite’s center of gravity (staic unbalance) and product of inertia (dynamic unbalance) are measured in Vertical Dynamic Balancing Machine (...

The analysis of the VLF signals radiated by ground transmitters and received on board of the French DEMETER satellite, reveals a drop of the signals (scattering spot) connected with the occurrence of large earthquakes. The extension of the “scattering spots” zone is large enough (1000–5000 km) and, probably, it increases with the magnitude of the “relative” earthquake. A possible model to expla...

Using the principle of energy conservation has been considered for gravity field determination from satellite observations since the early satellite era, see e.g. O’Keefe (1957), Bjerhammar (1968), Reigber (1969) or Ilk (1983). CHAMP is the first satellite to which the energy balance approach can be usefully applied, now that near-continuous orbit tracking by GPS is available, aided by accelero...

The classical problem of the critical inclination in artificial satellite theory has been extended to the case when a satellite may have an arbitrary, significant mass and the rotation momentum vector is tilted with respect to the symmetry axis of the planet. If the planet’s potential is restricted to the second zonal harmonic, according to the assumptions of the main problem of the satellite t...

The collisional damping of satellite wakes at the edge of the Encke gap of Saturn's rings is studied using N-body simulations. The self-gravity of the ring particles is neglected. The wake damping rate is determined as a function of ring optical depth, particle size, and the coefficient of restitution of colliding particles. The amplitude decay of the wakes is nonuniform and is not a simple fun...

Introduction: The internal structures of terrestrial planets are commonly constrained by seismic data and geochemical considerations. We suggest that these constraints may be augmented by gravity drilling that focuses on interpreting satellite altitude free-air gravity observations for boundary undulations of the internal density layers related to mass flow. This approach involves separating th...

GOCE will be the first satellite gravity mission measuring gravity gradients in space using a dedicated instrument called a gradiometer. High resolution gravity field recovery will be possible from these gradients. Such a recovery requires a proper description of the gravity gradient errors, where the a priori error model is for example based on end-to-end instrument simulations. One way to tes...

The satellite gravity mission GOCE measured the second-order derivatives of the Earth’s gravitational potential with high accuracy. The GOCE data enrich our gravity field knowledge especially at spatial resolutions from 750km down to 80km. In this paper we carry out regional gravity field analysis using radial localising basis functions that permit the combination of different data types tailor...

Closely spaced satellite altimeter profiles collected during the Geosat Geodetic Mission (-6 km) and the ERS 1 Geodetic Phase (8 km) are easily converted to grids of vertical gravity gradient and gravity anomaly. The long-wavelength radial orbit error is suppressed below the noise level of the altimeter by taking the along-track derivative of each profile. Ascending and descending slope profile...

New satellite missions are returning high precision, time-varying, satellite measurements of the Earth’s gravity field. The GRACE mission is now in its calibration/validation phase and first results of the gravity field solutions are imminent. We consider here the possibility of external validation using data from the superconducting gravimeters in the European sub-array of the Global Geodynami...