Towards a Roadmap for Future Satellite Gravity Missions September 30 - October 2, 2009, Graz, Austria

Breakout Session B5 (Thursday, October 1, 2009): Future products and services
Co-Chairs: Isabelle Panet, C.K. Shum.
Rapporteur: nn.
Session description:

This session will be a forum for discussing the requirements in terms of products and services for a GRACE Follow-On mission, from the users standpoint. Taking into account the experience from the GRACE mission products, and considering the science requirements, possible mission configurations and their respective data processing and modelling approaches for a GRACE Follow-On mission, we will discuss the following topics to generate improved data products and services:

• the requirements for the assimilation of GRACE Follow-On data into models (hydrologic model, ocean model, ice-sheet model and coupled climate models), and the potential need for near real-time data products;
• the potential need for alternate L1B (or L1A) data product to implement user-defined KBR filtering;
• the need for regional gravity field solutions with alternate geopotential representations and with enhanced spatial resolution;
• the need for a finer than monthly temporal resolution of the L2 gravity solutions in the context of possible optimal GRACE-type constellation mission scenario;
• the plan for constrained/regularized global and regional gravity solutions;
• the need for the possible availability of solution error variance/covariance matrices;
• the need for new products and tools related to post-processing of Level 2 data products, in order to maximise their scientific usage and interpretation: filtered gravity solutions and de-aliasing filters, signal extraction tools, and models and other data sets;
• the consistency in the form of calibration/validation plans between GRACE and GRACE Follow-On gravity solutions.