The improvement of the Earth gravity field estimation and its benefits in the atmosphere and fundamental physics Original Research Article

In the present decade, Earth’s explorer missions such as CHAMP, GRACE and GOCE are going to dramatically improve the knowledge of the Earth’s gravity field. The deep knowledge of the gravity field with unprecedented precision is making feasible new experiments and investigations in the field of geophysics and fundamental physics. The present work plans to demonstrate that such improvements, together with the huge number of LEO satellites, will make possible model refinements of subtle physical effects acting on the orbital motion of Earth’s satellites like general relativistic effects and the smooth modulation of the solar radiation pressure through the Earth’s atmosphere (penumbra). The refinement of the gravity field and a better assessment of penumbra effects on the orbits could concur to determine global changes of some atmospheric parameters like the refractivity and extinction. On the other hand, it could make the existing constellation of Earth’s satellites suitable for testing Lense–Thirring gravitomagnetic field.