GLOBAL GRAVITY-FIELD RECOVERY FROM THE ARISTOTLES SATELLITE MISSION

One of the primary objectives of the future ARISTOTELES satellite miss ion is to map Earth's gravity field with high resolution and accuracy. In order to achieve this objective, the ARISTOTELES satellite will be equipped with a gravity gradiometer and a Global Positioning System ( GPS) receiver. Global gravity field error analyses have been performed for several combinations of gradiometer and GPS observations. These a nalyses indicated that the bandwidth limitation of the gradiometer pre vents a stable high-accuracy, high-resolution gravity solution if no a dditional information is available. However, with the addition of high -accuracy GPS observations, a stable gravity field solution can be obt ained. A combination of the measurements acquired by the high-quality GPS receiver and the bandwidth-limited gradiometer on board ARISTOTELE S will yield a global gravity field model with a resolution of less th an 100 km and with an accuracy of better than 5 mGal for gravity anoma lies and 10 cm for geoid undulations.