High-resolution global and local lunar gravity field models using GRAIL mission data

Sander J Goossens1, Frank G Lemoine2, Terence J Sabaka3, Joseph B Nicholas4, Erwan Mazarico5, David D Rowlands5, Gregory A Neumann6, Bryant D Loomis4, Douglas S Chinn7,8, David E Smith9 and Maria T Zuber10, (1)NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, United States, (2)NASA Goddard GSFC, Greenbelt, United States, (3)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States, (4)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Geodesy and Geophysics Laboratory, Greenbelt, United States, (5)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (6)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, Greenbelt, United States, (7)Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies Inc., Greenbelt, MD, United States, (8)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Geodesy & Geophysics Laboratory, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (9)Massachusetts Inst Tech, Cambridge, MA, United States, (10)Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Cambridge, MA, United States
Abstract:
The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft were designed to map the structure of the Moon through high-precision global gravity mapping. The mission consisted of two spacecraft with Ka-band inter-satellite tracking complemented by tracking from Earth. The mission had two phases: (1) a primary mapping mission from March 1 until May 29, 2012 at an average altitude of 50 km; (2) an extended mission from August 30 until December 14, 2012, with an average altitude of 23 km before November 18, and between 11-20 km through December 14. Both the primary and the extended mission data have been processed into global models of the lunar gravity field at NASA/GSFC using the GEODYN software. Here we present our latest global model, an expansion in spherical harmonics of degree and order 1080. We discuss this new solution in terms of its power spectrum, its free-air and Bouguer anomalies, its associated error spectrum, and its correlations with topography-induced gravity.

In addition to global models we also estimated local gravity adjustments in areas of particular interest such as Mare Orientale and the south pole area. We express gravity in terms of anomalies, and estimate them with respect to a global background model. We apply neighbor-smoothing in our estimation procedure. We present a local solution over the south pole area in a resolution of 1/6 by 1/6 of a degree, equivalent to degree and order 1080, and we compare this local solution to our global model.

Back to: Spaceborne Remote Sensing of Gravity: GRACE, GRAIL, GOCE, GRACE-FO, and Beyond I