Earth observation using satellite gravimetry missions and applications

For the time being there is an exceptional opportunity of achieving simultaneous and complementary data from a multitude of geoscience and environmental near-Earth artificial satellites. Today, most successful data for studying the temporal changes of the gravity field stems from the very long record of Satellite Laser Ranging and lately from the accurate dedicated satellite gravity mission GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment). These data are collected from low-orbited dedicated missions, which provide a homogeneous global coverage. However, these data suffer from inherent data processing problems and needs to be addressed properly in order to achieve reliable and accurate data. The satellite missions allow significant contributions in understanding the climate change. There are many indications for climate change e.g. gravity field change, the Earth’s mass distributions due to ice melting, sea level rise, soil moisture, temperature changes, permafrost degradation and Earth surface deformation. In this lecture, I will present how satellite gravimetry will improve our capability to understand, monitor and predict climate change and geophysical/geological processes, which are affected by the Earth's mass changes.

Coffee and cake will be available for the first 30 attendees at 15:00, warmly welcome!