Studying the Impact of the NGGM and MAGIC future satellite gravity missions for scientific applications and operational services

The SING project aims to evaluate the added value of the NGGM and MAGIC missions for scientific applications and operational services in hydrology, ocean sciences, glaciology, climate sciences, solid earth sciences, and geodesy. Using a closed-loop simulator with a comprehensive description of instrumental and dealiasing errors, synthetic observations of the gravity field have been generated to assess the observability of mass changes occurring in the atmosphere, ocean, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and solid earth for different mission configurations, including GRACE-C (single polar pair), NGGM (single inclined pair), and MAGIC (double pair). Our results indicate significant benefits from the higher spatial and temporal resolution of NGGM and MAGIC, particularly in flood prediction, drought monitoring, and water resource management. These aspects have been explored through dedicated hydrological data assimilation and data-model fusion studies. Additionally, the improved spatial resolution has been shown essential for detecting changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in the context of climate change. The SING project has been assessing the impact of the NGGM and MAGIC missions on monitoring ice mass changes in mountain glaciers and ice sheets. The greater spatial and temporal resolution of future satellite gravimetry missions have been shown to improve the recovery of the Ocean Heat Content and Earth Energy Imbalance due to better consistency with other ocean monitoring systems such as satellite altimetry. The added value of a second satellite pair has been estimated for monitoring co-seismic and post-seismic processes, as well as improving predictive modeling for geohazards, with a focus on providing timely forecasts that are socially relevant. The project also investigated the impact of the NGGM and MAGIC missions on geodesy by enhancing gravity and geoid models in support of the IHRF realization, its time evolution, and precise orbit determination. The results of the SING project will provide further validation for the NGGM and MAGIC mission concepts and contribute to the preparation of NGGM and MAGIC products into operational services.