→ ESa’S Gravity MiSSiOn
goce newsletter
Issue 2 | March 2011
GOCE satellite
launched on 17 March 2009
Foreword
This is the second Issue of the GOCE
Newsletter, following up on the first issue of
May 2010. It is being released prior to the
4th International GOCE User Workshop,
GOCE Mission accomplished!
On 2 March 2011, ESA’s Director of Earth
Observation Programmes, Prof. Volker Liebig,
announced to all GOCE users and to Member
States delegations that GOCE has completed
its nominal mission, after having completed
twelve full months of gravity field mapping.
This achievement matches the nominal
GOCE Mission Status March 2011
At the completion of its second year in orbit,
on 17 March 2011, the GOCE satellite and its
payload are in excellent conditions and
operating nominally. The configuration of
both payloads and all satellite subsystem
has remained unchanged since the issue of
the first GOCE newsletter in May 2010. In
particular, the orbital altitude of 254.9 km
and the respective 61 days repeat cycle
which takes place in Munich on 31 March
and 1 April 2011, and the 2011 European
Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna,
3-6 April 2011.
mission design which foresaw two so-called
Measurement Operations Phases, each of 6
months duration.
The accompanying release of the second-
generation gravity field products marks this
milestone.
have remained constant since launch. The
persistent low solar activity throughout
2010, the good health of the power
subsystem and the excellent thermo-elastic
stability of satellite and gradiometer have
allowed to continue science measurements
during eclipse phases. Operating all year
round significantly increases the overall data
return compared to pre-launch planning,
In this issue:
Foreword
GOCE Mission Accomplished!
GOCE Mission Status March 2011
Release of the second generation GOCE gravity
field solutions
The GOCE gravity field solutions: DIR, TIM and SPW
• Improvements on the geoid model from the
new solutions
Pubblications
How to obtain GOCE Data
• Available datasets
• Data Access
Processing GOCE Data
• L1b and Level 2 product readers
• The GUT Software suite
Staying up-to-date: the GOCE Portal
Getting Help
All GOCE newsletters can be obtained from the
GOCE web portal:
http://earth.esa.int/GOCE
GOCE satellite and its payload are in good
health and continue to deliver top science
data. On 24 November 2011, and based on
the excellent achievements of the mission so
far, ESA’s Earth Observation Programme
Board approved the extension of GOCE
operations through 2012.
which foresaw hibernating the satellite
during eclipses.
As already stated, the nominal mission’s lifetime
of 12 months continuous operations, has
been accomplished in early March. Currently,
measurement cycle #7 is being executed. The
individual measurement cycles are shifted
with respect to each other along the equator
goce newsletter
in order to decrease the distance between
ascending node crossings. An average
distance of ascending node crossings of 10
km has been achieved by now. The advantage
of this strategy, compared to longer repeat
cycles which would yield a denser ground
coverage pattern, lies in a reduced sensitivity
to measurement interruptions due to satellite
anomalies.
Solar activity has increased in recent weeks
and its evolution is being carefully monitored.
The average drag levels have gone up by
roughly a factor two since launch and are
release of the second generation GOCE gravity field solutions
The second-generation gravity field solutions
have been released on March 11, 2011.
These new solutions are based on 8 months of
data, November 2009 to July 2010 (effectively
6 months after reduction of data gaps and
calibration phases).
So-called direct and time-wise numerical
solutions are available, both representing
satellite-only gravity field solutions. The
products associated with these solutions, are:
• Direct solution :
GO_CONS_EGM_GOC_2__20091101T00
0000_20100630T235959_0001.TGZ
• time-Wise solution:
GO_CONS_EGM_GOC_2__20091101T00
0000_20100705T235500_0001.TGZ
A third solution, so-called space-wise solution,
will be released later on.
the GOCE gravity field solutions: Dir, tiM and SPW
Three different solutions for the gravity field
are being released by ESA, representing the
Time-wise solution (TIM), the Direct solution
(DIR) and the Space-wise solution (SPW).
The time-wise solution is inferred from GOCE
data exclusively, i.e. it does not contain
gravity field information through a background
reference model. Therefore, it is representative
of the GOCE mission performance and constitutes
an independent means of comparison to other
models. This is illustrated in Fig. 1.
The direct numerical solution, in contrast with
the time-wise one, has been constructed
taking prior gravity field information through
a background reference mode. As such, it
incorporates data from other satellite
missions, such as GRACE. The low degrees of
the direct solution are consequently more
accurate than those of the time-wise solution.
expected to double further until the
maximum of the current solar cycle will be
reached in 2013. Peaks due to solar flares will
still reach higher levels. Current predictions
indicate that it will be possible for the major
part of 2011 to keep the orbital altitude
constant at 254.9 km.
Two satellite anomalies leading to significant
interruptions of science measurements were
encountered since the publication of the last
newsletter. First, a problem in the data
communication between the main computer
and the telemetry module, which is formatting
These new solutions are available free of
charge, through the usual data services,
EOLI and the GOCE Virtual Online Archive
(see below).
Full error variance-covariance matrices for these
models are available and may be downloaded
from the GOCE Virtual Online Archive, where
a more complete description of the models
characteristics may also be found.
A subset of these data, the models’ gravity
field spherical harmonics coefficients, had
already been released by ESA in February
2011. They may be directly downloaded in
plain ASCII format from the GOCE web
portal, see:
http://earth.esa.int/object/index.cfm?
fobjectid=7490 (Direct solution)
None of these two new solutions incorporate
surface data or airborne data in any way.
The Space-wise (SPW) model makes use of
both satellite tracking data, derived from the
on-board GPS receiver, and gravity gradients
observed by the on-board electrostatic
gradiometer. Reduced dynamic orbits are used
for geo-locating gravity gradients. EGM2008 is
used for degree variance modelling and for
error calibration of the estimated gravitational
potential along track, thus affecting the low
degrees of the solution. As mentioned above,
the second generation SPW model has not
been released together with the DIR and
TIM models. It will be released as soon as
it has been produced and validated by the
relevant science teams.
During the extended mission, the processing
team behind the Space-wise solution plans
Issue 2 | March 2011
and relaying data towards the antenna,
completely stopped the capability to transfer
both science and housekeeping data to
ground. Due to that anomaly no science data
are available between 8 July and 27
September 2010.
A second anomaly related to a software
problem with the GPS payload SSTI caused
an interruption of the scientific measurements
between 2 and 19 January 2011.
Both anomalies have been resolved and do
not impact the successful continuation of the
mission even beyond the current end of
mission date in December 2012.
http://earth.esa.int/object/index.cfm?
fobjectid=7484 (Time-wise solution)
as well as from ICGEM.
A first generation of GOCE gravity field
models, based on 2 months of data (1 Nov
2009 through 31 Dec 2009), had already been
released at ESA's Living Planet symposium in
Bergen, Norway, July 2010.
The accuracy improvement of the new-
generation solutions over these first-generation
ones is relevant and, essentially, as expected
from the augmented statistics. in accordance
with the increase of the data amount by a
factor three, the improvement on degree-error
median is of the order of √3, over a wide
spectral range.
to deliver gridded data in a local geographical
reference frame. Grids may either be referred
at mean satellite altitude, returning the
gravitational potential and its second order
derivatives thus representing the original
information from Mission data, or, through
downward continuation, at ground level,
returning the diagonal component of the
gravity gradient tensor. External information,
such as other independent global models
based on satellite and/or ground data, may be
easily integrated in gridded representations.
Easier integration in geophysical applications
will also result. High resolutions may be
achieved by gridding.
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goce newsletter
improvements on the geoid model from the new solutions
The blue curve in Figure 1 represents the
degree error median of the current 6-month
solution and shows the significant improvement
achieved compared to the previous solution (red
curve), which was based on 2-months of data.
The improvement is of the order of √3 over
a wide spectral range, in accordance with the
Fig. 1
The degree (error) medians of the 2-month
and 6-month time-wise gravity field solutions.
Fig. 2
Gravity anomaly differences between EGM2008 and the 2-month (left) and 6-month (right) time-wise gravity field models.
Fig. 3
Propagated geoid height errors (degree/order
200) of the new 6-month time-wise solution.
increase of the data amount by a factor of
about 3.
It can be shown that this factor of √3 is not
only present in the formal errors, but is a real
improvement of the gravity field accuracy. For
this purpose, gravity anomaly differences
between the 2-months solution (Fig. 2, left),
the new solution (Fig. 2, right),
and EGM2008 up to degree/order
200 have been computed. Signifi-
cant noise reduction is clearly
achieved over the open oceans and
regions with high-quality terrestrial
gravity field data (Europe, North
America, Australia) incorporated
in EGM2008. The large differences
over the continents, which are
due to inaccurate surface data
and a non-optimum combination
of satellite and surface data in
EGM2008, are presently particularly
well visible (Fig. 2, right).
The propagated geoid height
errors to degree/order 200 are
shown in Fig. 3, the three main
features of which are:
• Almost no striping due to
homogeneous orbit coverage
• Asymetry due to lower mean
orbit altitude in Northern
hemisphere
• Increased error south of Australia
due to data interpolation
As mentioned above, the direct
numerical solution is inferred
from the GOCE data, but, contrary
to the time-wise model, it has
been constructed taking prior
gravity field information through a background
reference model into account. Therefore, it is
Issue 2 | March 2011
not representative of the GOCE mission
performance only, but constitutes a model
that is based on both GRACE and GOCE. The
low degrees of the direct solution are conse-
quently more accurate than those of the time-
wise solution. A second difference is due to
the regularization method used when solving
for the Stokes coefficients. Regularization of
the gravity field solutions is necessary due
to the polar gaps in the data coverage, and
the direct solution applies spherical cap
regularization (Metzler and Pail [1]). This
regularization approach consists in employing
an analytical continuous geopotential function
using a gravity field model.
Figure 4 presents the geoid height differences
of several models with EIGEN-51C [2], which
is a recent GRACE and surface data combined
model. The new GOCE model by means of
the direct approach, labelled E-GOCE-69-6 in
Fig. 4, is a satellite-only model that has been
determined with 6 months of GOCE data,
whereas the background model ITG-Grace2010s
[3] constitutes the GRACE contribution. The
latter model has been used in the spherical
cap regularization. The first direct approach
gravity field model, labelled DIR in Fig. 4, is
very similar to EIGEN-51C because it was
used in the spherical cap regularization.
Because of the strong regularization applied
and the higher resolution of the latter model,
the first direct model is not a pure satellite-only
model and as a result compares better to
surface data than the new model. The models
labelled TIM and SPW in Fig. 4 are the 2-month
time-wise and space-wise gravity field
models, respectively.
Differences for ITG-Grace2010s are also
shown in Fig. 4 in order to show the impact
of the GOCE data especially above degree
140.
The importance and the effect of regularization
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goce newsletter Issue 2 | March 2011

are demonstrated in Fig. 5 by comparing to the

reference model EGM2008. The left frame Fig. 4
presents very large differences between Geoid height differences
EGM2008 and the free solution, and this of ITG-Grace2010s, the
ill-conditioned problem due to the polar gap 2-month direct (DIR), the
clearly requires regularization. The right 2-month time-wise (TIM),
frame of Fig. 5 shows the differences when the 2-month space-wise
regularization, in this case spherical cap (SPW), and the new direct
regularization, has been applied. model (E-GOCE-69-6) with
EIGEN-51C.
An example of external validation is shown in
Fig. 6, namely by comparing the models to the
German GPS/levelling data set as a function of
model resolution (degree). A significantly
better agreement of the GOCE models for
degrees higher than 150 is observed compared
to the GRACE-only model ITG-Grace2010. The
comparison also improves for the time-wise

Fig. 5
Geoid differences between EGM2008 and
the free (left) and spherical cap regularized
models when more data are assimilated, i.e., (right) solutions.
EGM-TIM1 versus EGM-TIM2. The agreement
for the direct models is worse presently (EGM-
DIR2 versus EGM-DIR1) at high degree due Fig. 6
to the different regularization, based on Validation of the 2-months
satellite data only, that was applied. Finally, (‘1’) and 6-months (‘2’)
based on the increasing accuracy of the GOCE time-wise (‘TIM’) and direct
models with time, the agreement with (‘DIR’) solutions based on
GPS/levelling data set will probably be near the German GPS/levelling
the level of EGM2008 at degree/order 200 data set. Results for the
GRACE-only ITG-Grace2010s
at the end of the first extended mission in
and reference combination
December 2012. model EGM2008 are also
given for comparison
[1] Metzler B, Pail R (2005) GOCE data purposes.
processing: the Spherical Cap Regularization
Approach. Stud Geophys Geod, 49:441-462.
doi:10.1007/s11200-005-0021-5
[2] Bruinsma SL, Marty JC, Balmino G, Biancale
R, Förste C, Abrikosov O, Neumayer H (2010)
GOCE Gravity Field Recovery by Means of the
Direct Numerical Method. Paper presented at
the ESA Living Planet Symposium, 28 June –
2 July 2010, Bergen, Norway
[3] Mayer-Gürr T, Kurtenbach E, Eicker A
(2010) The Satellite-only Gravity Field Model
ITG-Grace2010s. http://www.igg.uni-bonn.
de/apmg/index.php?id=itg-grace2010

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goce newsletter
instruments Performance and Data quality
For all data released, reports on instruments,
spacecraft or processing issues affecting the
quality of data may be found on the GOCE
Quality Control (QC) web page:
http://earth.esa.int/GOCE/ → “Level 1b QC
The GOCE QC page provides information on
the performance of GOCE's EGG and SSTI
instruments, through daily and monthly
reports.
Fig. 7
Summary table for EGG instrument.
See earth.esa.int/GOCE/ → “Level 1b QC” → EGG
In-flight calibration operations for Inverse
Calibration Matrix determination is always
connected with EGG data unavailability (24
hours, usually). Kalman filter reinitializations
also occur after calibration, affecting the
following half a day.
Relevant data loss or corruption have
resutlted only by the major spacecraft
anomalies, so far:
12/02 to 1/03/2010: CDMU-A failure and
switchover to the redundant CDMU-B. During
the anomaly no EGG data are available.
Some of the SSTI data are missing (for
details see the February 2010 monthly QC
report).
20/03/2010: EGG control SW anomaly. A gap
of 197 seconds in EGG datasets results, with
consequent, Kalman filter reinitialization.
Issue 2 | March 2011
Information are provided in several formats November 2009 through November 2010
and views, such as: reports are available, to date.
• EGG summary table Summary tables present a view of the overall
Synthetic view for EGG data quality status of instrument data, see Figure 7.
• SSti summary table Events are colour coded, indicating satellite
Synthetic view for SST data quality outages, calibrations or special events (any
• Monthly reports non-routine event). Special events cells are
Reference QC reports for all released data. usually clickable, for access to detailed analysis.
• reports
Other Reports/Announcements of general Data gaps on EGG are most often a result of
interest. processing issues on-ground.
Fig. 8
Effect on trace spetral density varying the
STR used for the attitude control
Fig. 9
STR1 flagged in dark
green, STR2 flagged
in light green
Fig. 10
Beam Out event, as seen
in common mode
accelerations data.
30/05/2010: Communication link between Use of STR1 instead of STR2 in the attitude
IPCU and CDMU occurred. This forced a fallback control loop is a known cause of performance
to FPM. worsening, limited to the lower part of the
Other special events are usually related to measured bandwidth, see Figure 8.
either a change of the STR used in the atti- An overview the STR in use during Operations
tude control loop or to beam-outs from the may be read out from Figure 9. April 2010
Ion Propulsion system. has been the most affected period, with 23
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days of STR1 being used in the attitude
control loop.
Beam Out events alter common mode
accelerations data, see Figure 10.
Beam-out induced oscillations enter the
accurate GOCE orbits from the SSt_PSO_2 product
The SSTI delivers high-quality and continuous
1 Hz GPS measurements on 12 channels.
Since the very beginning of the mission, the
excellent SSTI data quality has allowed to
generate precise continuous GOCE orbits
(SST_PSO) with the required accuracy. The
SST_PSO product consists of two different
orbit types, a reduced-dynamic (SST_PRD)
and a kinematic (SST_PKI) orbit. The latter
one is accompanied by covariance information
Pubblications
A special issue of the Journal of Geodesy dedi-
cated to the GOCE Mission is in preparation.
It will be a reference resource for all scientific
gradients time series, notably the Uxx
component, see Figure 11.
Impact on data is limited to the event itself,
not propagating forward. Ten Beam Out
events have occurred, so far.
(SST_PCV) over a few subsequent epochs.
The purpose of the reduced-dynamic orbit is
to geolocate the satellite and its instruments
with highest accuracy. The kinematic orbit
does not depend on GOCE dynamic orbit
models, and is thus best suitable for the
recovery of the long wavelength part of the
Earth’s gravity field.
The validation of the GPS-derived orbits is
done with independent Satellite Laser
and technical output from the GOCE Mission
to date. Publication of the Journal special issue
will be announced on GOCE’s website.
Issue 2 | March 2011
Fig. 11
Gravity gradients Power
Spectral Density over one day
Left panel includes effect of
beam-out.
Ranging (SLR) measurements, which are
provided by the International Laser Ranging
Service (ILRS). This important contribution
of the ILRS to the mission is gratefully
acknowledged. The SLR residuals in Figure
12 (Mean: 0.81 cm, RMS: 2.16 cm) are
sorted in ascending (dusk) and descending
(dawn) passes. Due to the sun-synchronous
orbit, passes are always occurring during
dusk or dawn.
Fig. 12
SLR residuals of the reduced-
dynamic orbits (SST_PRD)
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→ ESa’S Gravity MiSSiOn Issue 2 | March 2011

How to obtain GOCE Data

available datasets Level Product Single product span Description
Available GOCE Level-1b and Level-2 Level 1b EGG_NOM_1b 1 orbit Nominal Gradiometer Instrument data
datasets are listed in Table 1.
SST_NOM_1b 1 orbit Nominal SSTI Instrument (GPS) data
SST_RIN_1b 1 orbit Nominal SSTI Instrument (GPS) data in
RINEX format
Level 2 EGG_NOM_2 1 day Calibrated and corrected gravity gradients
in the gradiometer reference frame
EGG_TRF_2 1 day to 1 month Calibrated and corrected gravity gradients in
the terrestrial reference frame
SST_PSO_2 1 day Precise Science Orbits
Level 2 EGM_GOC_2 > 2 months Gravity solution. First and Second Generation
Table 1
gravity solutions are available with three different
Available solutions processing techniques: direct numerical
GOCE solution, Time-wise and Space-wise solutions.
products
EGM_GVC_2 > 2 months Calibrated and corrected gravity gradients in
the terrestrial reference frame

Data access
GOCE data access is open and free of charge,
in line with the new ESA Earth Observation
policies on free datasets. More detailed
information on ESA Earth Observation data
access may be found at:
http://earth.esa.int/dataproducts/accessin
geodata.
In order to access GOCE data, users need to
register via the WWW site:
http://eopi.esa.int/registration.
Users may also contact the ESA’s Help and
Order Desk (EOHelp@esa.int), for guidance
on the registration process.
Once users are registered, ESA’s helpdesk will
provide an account with ordering privileges.
GOCE data will then be accessible either
through GOCE’s Virtual on-line Archive
(http://eo-virtual-archive1.esa.int/index.html)
or through ESA’s Multi-Mission archive, EOLI-SA
(see http://earth.esa.int/EOLi/EOLi.html).
From EOLI-SA, products are made available
either as single products or as Global products,
collecting one week of data each. No quota
limitation applies but orders may be limited
to a maximum of 20 products. Global (weekly)
products should be used for larger orders, in
place of single products.
EOLI users receive, for each order, a link for
downloading the data via ftp, while Virtual
Archive users can directly download data
through http, without the need of submitting
orders. EOLI interface offers, however, more
flexibility and tools for data selection.
Variance/Covariance matrices (EGM_GVC_2)
are only available through the GOCE Virtual
Archive.
All details and up-to-day news on GOCE data
availability can be found on GOCE’s portal
(http://earth.esa.int/GOCE).

Fig. 13
The GOCE Virtual Online Archive at
http://eo-virtual- archive1.esa.int/Index.html

Fig. 14
The ESA Multi Mission
Archive EOLI-SA

Processing GOCE Data

L1b and Level 2 product readers
GOCE data conform to the Earth Explorers File
Format, which is based on XML.
Product handbooks for both Level-1b and
Level-2 products are available from the GOCE
portal, containing most of the information
needed for understanding GOCE’s data
formats and contents.
While each user is free to develop its own
parsing tool for extracting the datasets of
interest, ESA provides two basic tools for
processing L1b and L2 data:
• XML Parser for Level 1b and Level 2 data
• Basic Matlab routines for specific L1b data.
The XML parser runs on Mac, Windows and
Linux platforms.
Both XML parser and the Matlab routines may
be downloaded from the GOCE website, under
the right-menu bar entry: “Key Resources”
(see Figure 13):
• http://earth.esa.int/object/index.cfm?fobject
id=7042
• http://earth.esa.int/object/index.cfm?fobject
id=7530

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the GUt Software suite
The GUT (GOCE User Toolbox) is the result
of the work of a team of European research
institutes and industries led by Danish
Technical University Space (DTU Space)
under ESA Contract. The objectives of the
project are to develop a toolbox that facilitates
the use, viewing and post-processing of
GOCE Level 2 mission data and to pursue
the research in the fields of geodesy,
oceanography and solid Earth physics, while
exploiting the newly released GOCE dataset.
The GUT software is a command-line
processor that has been designed for users at
all levels of expertise. For the novice user,
pre-built workflows allow the rapid
computation of geophysical parameters,
including geoid heights, gravity anomalies
and ocean mean dynamic topographies in a
single step, with very little user input
required. More experienced users can generate
their own workflows for enhanced or more
specialised processing.
The current GUT release 1.1 features:
• Reading the GOCE XML Level 2 Products
(EGM_GOC_2), GRAVSOFT, netCDF in CF-
Staying up-to-date: the GOCE Portal
The GOCE portal is the single and comprehensive
access point for all GOCE-related information,
resources and data access. Please, visit it
regularly for announcements and updates.
http://earth.esa.int/GOCE
Fig. 16
The GOCE main
portal at
http://earth.esa.int/
GOCE
Conventions and ancillary datasets,
including a priori surfaces (DEM, MSS, MDT).
• Compute geoid heights at a chosen
maximum degree and order over a grid or
transect.
• Compute gravity anomalies, height anomalies
and vertical deflections on the surface of the
terrain for a range of maximum degree and
order expansions over a grid or transect.
• Compute a gridded field from its spherical
harmonic expansion.
• Compute the spherical harmonic expansion
of a gridded field.
• Compute the ocean’s mean dynamic
topography and the geostrophic velocities,
with the option of isotropic filtering in the
spatial or spectral domains.
• Transform data between different reference
ellipsoid and tide-systems.
• Support configurable high-level processing.
• Produce final output products in netCDF-CF
format, GRAVSOFT, KML and TIFF.
The version 2.0 will be released and distributed
to users during the 4th GOCE User Workshop,
featuring:
• Support for IGCEM Format
• Support to solid Earth community
Issue 2 | March 2011
• Support for multi-data netCDF
• Anisotropic spatial filtering
• Bicubic spline interpolation
• Removal of scalar bias from a grid/transect
• Adjustment of geoid heights in spectral
domain by height correction terms
• Handling of time-system attribute for
time-varying surfaces
• Enhancement of the statistic tools
Toolboxes will be demonstrated on the first
day of the GOCE User Workshop (31 March)
and also presented on an oral presentation.
GUT software can be freely downloaded from
GUT’s website:
http://earth.esa.int/gut , or from the related
link on GOCE webpage (under “Key Resources”).
gut
GOCE USER TOOLBOX
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Getting Help
ESA’s Earth Observation User Services in
ESRIN, Italy, is the entity ensuring a user-
friendly interface between the satellite system
and the data users. Services provided to users
include:

• Help services from the EO Help Desk team

• Order Handling by the Order Desk
• Mission planning and production planning
• Maintenance of catalogues and ordering tools
• On-line information services: (Earthnet
online, EO Portal and Disasters Charter)

All these interfaces are further described on

GOCE’s web site.

Contact:
European Space agency - goce newsletter On behalf of the GOCE team
ESRIN | Frascati (Rome) | Italy rune Floberghagen
http://earth.esa.int/goce rune.floberghagen@esa.int

Copyright © 2011 European Space Agency