Optical clocks for gravity field observation and further geodetic applications

Abstract

<p>In the past three decades, optical clocks and frequency transfer techniques have experienced a rapid development. They are approaching a fractional frequency uncertainty of 1.0x10<sup>-18</sup>, corresponding to about 1.0 cm in height. This makes them promising to realize “relativistic geodesy”, and it opens a new door to directly obtain gravity potential values by the comparison of clock frequencies. Clocks are thus considered as a novel candidate for determining the Earth’s gravity field. We propose to use a spaceborne clock to obtain gravity potential values along a satellite orbit through its comparison with reference clocks on ground or with a co-orbital clock. The sensitivity of clock measurements is mapped to gravity field coefficients through closed-loop simulations.</p><p>In addition, clocks are investigated for other geodetic applications. Since they are powerful in providing the height difference between distant sites, clocks can be applied for the unification of local/regional height systems, by estimating the offsets between different height datums and the systematic errors within levelling networks. In some regions like Greenland, clocks might be a complementary tool to GRACE(-FO) for detecting temporal gravity signals. They can be operated at locations of interest and continuously track changes w.r.t. reference clock stations. The resulting time-series of gravity potential values reveal the temporal gravity signals at these points. Moreover, as the equipotential surface at a high satellite altitude is more regular than that on the Earth’s surface, a couple of clocks in geostationary orbits can realize a space-based reference for the determination of physical heights at any point on the Earth through clock comparisons.</p><p>We gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy EXC-2123/1 (Project-ID: 390837967).</p>