GRACE Follow-On Orbit and Gravity Field Determination Using GPS Carrier Phase and SLR Observations

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Abstract
At the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern (AIUB) the Celestial Mechanics Approach for the analysis of satellite orbital motion is currently employed for two space geodetic techniques, namely GNSS and Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR). Both are not only used for station network analyses but also for precise orbit determination (GNSS) and validation (SLR) of Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites. In addition, GNSS-based LEO orbits and SLR observations to the spherical geodetic satellites are used in Earth gravity field recovery. Taking GRACE Follow-On as an example, we present temporal gravity field results, where we derive dynamic and reduced-dynamic orbits together with gravity field parameters from GPS carrier phase observations and combine them with SLR observations to the satellites. Hence, using the satellites as a space tie with respect to the gravity field. We validate our results by comparing them with solutions of superior quality derived from the operational GRACE Follow-On data processing at the AIUB, which include the K-band range-rate data, and we investigate the quality of the co-estimated orbits.

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