Monthly gravity field solution from GRACE range measurements using modified short arc approach

Abstract

In this paper we present a series of monthly gravity field solutions from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) range measurements using modified short arc approach, in which the ambiguity of range measurements is eliminated via differentiating two adjacent range measurements. The data used for developing our monthly gravity field model are same as Tongji-GRACE01 model except that the range measurements are used to replace the range rate measurements, and our model is truncated to degree and order 60, spanning Jan. 2004 to Dec. 2010 also same as Tongji-GRACE01 model. Based on the comparison results of the C2,0, C2,1, S2,1, and C15,15, S15,15, time series and the global mass change signals as well as the mass change time series in Amazon area of our model with those of Tongji-GRACE01 model, we can conclude that our monthly gravity field model is comparable with Tongji-GRACE01 monthly model.