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This study evaluates the potential of Spire CubeSats constellation to contribute to monthly gravity field recovery using precise orbit determination (POD) data within the high–low satellite-to-satellite tracking (HL-SST) technique. Although the Spire LEMUR CubeSats were designed primarily for GNSS radio occultation, they carry dual-frequency GNSS receivers and attitude sensors, which enable opportunistic gravity field estimation through dedicated POD processing and short arc gravity recovery. Monthly gravity field solutions are generated for six Spire CubeSats over 2020 using three progressively refined POD levels. The orbit solutions are then used as input for gravity field recovery to quantify the sensitivity the recovered gravity fields to orbit quality. The results show that POD Level 1 produces noticeably noisier gravity fields, with significantly higher geoid height RMS errors than Levels 2 and 3. In contrast, POD Levels 2 and 3, which are based on cleaned official Spire L1B products and improved reduced dynamic orbits, yield nearly identical and more accurate solutions. Degree-amplitude comparisons with the GOCO06s model across different CubeSats demonstrates consistent behavior and confirm the strong dependence of gravity field recovery on the quality of underlying POD solution.

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Impact of Precise Orbit Determination Solutions on the Spire CubeSats Gravity Field Recovery

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  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年

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  • Parisa Shafiei,
  • Matthias Weigelt,
  • Sajad Tabibi

摘要

This study evaluates the potential of Spire CubeSats constellation to contribute to monthly gravity field recovery using precise orbit determination (POD) data within the high–low satellite-to-satellite tracking (HL-SST) technique. Although the Spire LEMUR CubeSats were designed primarily for GNSS radio occultation, they carry dual-frequency GNSS receivers and attitude sensors, which enable opportunistic gravity field estimation through dedicated POD processing and short arc gravity recovery. Monthly gravity field solutions are generated for six Spire CubeSats over 2020 using three progressively refined POD levels. The orbit solutions are then used as input for gravity field recovery to quantify the sensitivity the recovered gravity fields to orbit quality. The results show that POD Level 1 produces noticeably noisier gravity fields, with significantly higher geoid height RMS errors than Levels 2 and 3. In contrast, POD Levels 2 and 3, which are based on cleaned official Spire L1B products and improved reduced dynamic orbits, yield nearly identical and more accurate solutions. Degree-amplitude comparisons with the GOCO06s model across different CubeSats demonstrates consistent behavior and confirm the strong dependence of gravity field recovery on the quality of underlying POD solution.