A simulated space-wise solution using GOCE kinematic orbits

One of the purposes of the GOCE data analysis is to derive a GOCE-only gravity field model. To this aim satellite gradiometry has to be complemented with satellite tracking data in order to estimate the low degrees of the geopotential spherical harmonic expansion. In this paper a full space-wise solution based on simulated GOCE data is presented. In particular, kinematic orbits are used for the determination of the low degree coefficients of the geopotential. This implies a preprocessing of these orbits for data gap interpolation, outlier detection and velocity estimation from satellite positions. The accuracy of the final spherical harmonic coefficients confirms that the proposed method can be used to produce a GOCE-only solution based on kinematic orbits. This solution is less accurate than the solution based on reduced dynamic orbits, but it is less dependent on a-priori information.