Community assessment on user requirements for future satellite gravity missions

Since 2002, the GRACE and GRACE-FO satellite gravity missions have been observing changes in the Earth’s gravity field. ESA and NASA are currently planning a double-pair satellite constellation MAGIC, which promises an enhanced spatial and temporal resolution compared to GRACE/-FO. After MAGIC, in the long-term post-2040-time frame, a gravity mission constellation with multiple satellite pairs equipped with novel quantum sensor instrumentation is considered as a promising candidate concept to improve the observation time series even further. It has the potential to acquire unprecedented data on key Earth processes and is expected to significantly expand the potential range of applications.

Within the ongoing ESA project “Quantum Space Gravimetry for monitoring Earth’s Mass Transport Processes” (QSG4EMT) an online questionnaire was created to assess user requirements for such a future quantum mission concept. We will present the results of this community assessment based on 135 answers from various user groups (hydrology, oceanography, glaciology, atmospheric and climate sciences, solid earth sciences, and geodesy). In addition to application-driven demands of the different disciplines regarding the required spatial and temporal resolution, accuracy, and latency, we discuss the expected added benefits of hypothetical future mission scenarios and outline possible new application fields.