Optimized gravity field retrieval for the MAGIC mission concept using background model uncertainty information

Abstract Errors in ocean tide and non-tidal atmospheric and oceanic models are among the largest error sources in gravity field recovery from space. We co-estimate corrections to these background models subject to uncertainty constraints during the adjustment procedure of gravity field spherical harmonic coefficients. Simulations are performed for the Mass-Change and Geoscience International Constellation to evaluate the effect of such a constrained procedure on monthly gravity field retrievals for the planned ESA-NASA double-pair mission. The influence of co-estimating background model corrections subject to known uncertainty information is evaluated separately for both types of background models and is then combined and used to retrieve monthly gravity fields over one year. Retrieval errors are compared to those obtained with the standard recovery procedure, which neglects these corrections. It is shown that gravity field retrieval errors are reduced by up to 36%. In addition, the one-year simulation is used to estimate residual corrections for eight major tidal constituents in order to improve ocean tide background modelling. Adding these residual corrections to the applied a priori ocean tide model shows that ocean tide errors are decreased by up to 27%.