Determination of Earth's Static Gravity Field Using Quantum Gravity Satellites at Very Low Earth Orbit

Abstract Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) satellite platforms and quantum‐optical sensing technologies may provide new observation approaches for improving Earth's static gravity field models. This study conceptually assesses their potential contribution through a two‐tier closed‐loop simulation framework. Under idealized conditions considering only instrumental observation noise, with the cold atom interferometry (CAI) gradiometer modeled using joint three‐axis observations of , and at 180 km altitude and a noise level of , the VLEO‐borne CAI gradiometer concept yields overall recovery errors lower than those of the selected GOCE‐derived reference models. For the GRACE‐like scheme based on space‐to‐space optical‐clock observations of gravitational potential differences, a frequency accuracy of 10 −20 or better is required to outperform the GRACE‐derived reference model. In addition, the idealized simulations indicate that lowering the orbital altitude and adopting a Bender‐like dual‐orbit configuration can reduce recovery errors. When attitude errors () and aliasing errors from high‐frequency time‐variable signals are introduced, along with a single‐axis observation scheme at 198 km altitude, the VLEO‐borne CAI gradiometer still yields recovery errors overall lower than those of GOCE‐derived references up to degree 300, although no clear improvement in spatial resolution is observed.