Gravity gradient measurements

Abstract

It is shown that, for floated satellite gradiometers subject to very low levels of unmodeled forces and torques, dynamic estimation can dramatically reduce rotation correction errors. The filter structure is developed, and the value of factorization techniques is examined. Numerical examples are given for a few practical cases using plausible instrument ensembles. To achieve these early results, great simplifications have been made, and important error sources have been suppressed.