GENESIS: Co-location of Geodetic Techniques in Space
Abstract
Improving and homogenizing time and space reference systems on Earth and, more directly, realizing the Terrestrial Reference Frame (TRF) with an accuracy of 1mm and a long-term stability of 0.1mm/year are relevant for many scientific and societal endeavors. The knowledge of the TRF is fundamental for Earth and navigation sciences. For instance, quantifying sea level change strongly depends on an accurate determination of the geocenter motion but also of the positions of continental and island reference stations, as well as the ground stations of tracking networks. Also, numerous applications in geophysics require absolute millimeter precision from the reference frame, as for example monitoring tectonic motion or crustal deformation for predicting natural hazards. The TRF accuracy to be achieved represents the consensus of various authorities which has enunciated geodesy requirements for Earth sciences. Today we are still far from these ambitious accuracy and stability goals for the realization of the TRF. However, a combination and co-location of all four space geodetic techniques on one satellite platform can significantly contribute to achieving these goals. This is the purpose of the GENESIS mission, proposed as a component of the FutureNAV program of the European Space Agency. The GENESIS platform will be a dynamic space geodetic observatory carrying all the geodetic instruments referenced to one another through carefully calibrated space ties. The co-location of the techniques in space will solve the inconsistencies and biases between the different geodetic techniques in order to reach the TRF accuracy and stability goals endorsed by the various international authorities and the scientific community. The purpose of this white paper is to review the state-of-the-art and explain the benefits of the GENESIS mission in Earth sciences, navigation sciences and metrology.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2209.15298,
title = {GENESIS: Co-location of Geodetic Techniques in Space},
author = {Pacôme Delva and Zuheir Altamimi and Alejandro Blazquez and Mathis Blossfeld and Johannes Böhm and Pascal Bonnefond and Jean-Paul Boy and Sean Bruinsma and Grzegorz Bury and Miltiadis Chatzinikos and Alexandre Couhert and Clément Courde and Rolf Dach and Véronique Dehant and Simone Dell'Agnello and Gunnar Elgered and Werner Enderle and Pierre Exertier and Susanne Glaser and Rüdiger Haas and Wen Huang and Urs Hugentobler and Adrian Jäggi and Ozgur Karatekin and Frank G. Lemoine and Christophe Le Poncin-Lafitte and Susanne Lunz and Benjamin Männel and Flavien Mercier and Laurent Métivier and Benoît Meyssignac and Jürgen Müller and Axel Nothnagel and Felix Perosanz and Roelof Rietbroek and Markus Rothacher and Hakan Sert and Krzysztof Sosnica and Paride Testani and Javier Ventura-Traveset and Gilles Wautelet and Radoslaw Zajdel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2209.15298},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
31 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Earth, Planets and Space (EPS)