Reduction of crossover errors in the earth gravity model (EGM) 96

Using the established procedure, the calibrated covariance matrix of harmonic geopo‐tential coefficients of the new (Earth Gravity Model) EGM96 (to 70 × 70) is projected to single‐and dual‐satellite crossover errors, and their spectral latitude lumped coefficient constituents. These results are compared with previous gravity solutions, such as JGM 2 and JGM 3, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the new solution. This analysis quantifies the level of improvement over previous solutions, as well as suggests areas where further refinements are required to achieve subdecimeter accuracy over a wide range of satellite missions.

Keywords:

• crossover altimetry
• gravity field models
• projection of covariance matrix
• satellite altimetry
• tests of accuracy of gravity field models