Using Data Assimilation to Understand the Systematic Errors of CHAMP
Accelerometer-Derived Neutral Mass Density Data
Abstract
Accelerometer-derived neutral mass density (NMD) is an important
measurement of the variability in upper atmosphere and one of the widely
used measurements to calibrate and validate models used for satellite
orbit determination and prediction. Providing precise estimates of the
true uncertainty of these NMD products is a challenging task but
essential for the space weather and geodetic communities. Using multiple
data assimilation (DA) experiments and robust statistical techniques, we
investigate the uncertainty distribution of three different
accelerometer-derived NMD products from the CHAMP satellite mission.
Here, in three different DA experiments, we use an ensemble Kalman
filter to drive a physics-based model with CHAMP in-situ electron
density and temperature data as well as neutral wind estimates from an
empirical model. Using a multi-model ensemble comprised of both physical
and empirical models, we characterize the error variances among the
different NMD products. Our results indicate considerable differences
among the CHAMP data sets and also show a pronounced latitudinal
dependency for the estimated error distributions. On average, the error
estimates for NMD vary in the range 6.5–15.6% of the signal. Our
experiments demonstrate that DA considerably enhances the capability of
the physical model. We note that the generic strategies applied here may
be useful and applicable to other space missions spanning over longer
time periods.