Contact: roberto.peron[AT]inaf.itLocation: Sydney, Australia
Scientific Event H0.5 – Fundamental Physics in Space – Applications (Geodesy, Metrology, Navigation, and Others)
Main Scientific Organizer: Juergen Mueller
Deputy Organizer: Roberto Peron
Dear colleague,
the 43rd Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Scientific Assembly will be held on 15 – 22 August 2020, in Sydney, Australia. As scientific organizers of the COSPAR session H0.5 “Applications (Geodesy, Metrology, Navigation, and Others)” and acknowledging your expertise in the related scientific fields, we would like to cordially invite you to submit an abstract for /a solicited talk in/ session H0.5.
Event Description:
In this Event, we will discuss new sensor measurement and mission concepts that apply advanced techniques for the study of the gravitational field on ground and in space. Terrestrial gravity anomalies will be determined by observing free-falling atoms (quantum gravimetry) instead of using falling corner cubes. This will open the door for a vast bundle of applications such as fast local gravimetric surveys and exploration, and the observation of Earth system processes with high spatial and temporal resolution. This technique can also be applied for future gradiometric measurements in space.
Other concepts are approaching a frontier that can be termed as “Relativistic Metrology”: the precise measurement of quantities (e.g., length and time) related to spacetime dynamics. Frequency comparisons of highly precise optical clocks connected by optical links give access to differences of the gravity potential (relativistic geodesy). In future, relativistic geodesy with clocks might be applied for defining and realizing height systems in a new way, locally as well as globally. Moreover, accurate clocks help to improve the accuracy of the International Atomic Time standard TAI. They are important for all space geodetic techniques as well as for the realization of reference systems and their connections. One example of increasing importance is positioning and navigation with GNSS for terrestrial and space applications.
In addition, laser interferometry between test masses in space with nanometer accuracy – which has been recently implemented in the GRACE-FO mission – belongs to these novel concepts. For the latter, technology developed for gravitational wave detection and successfully tested in the LISA Pathfinder mission is being prepared for geodetic measurements. In the future even more refined concepts (tracking a swarm of satellites) will be implemented.
We invite presentations to illustrate the principles and state of the art of these novel techniques and the application of the new methods for terrestrial and satellite geodesy (where local and global mass variations and surface deformations will be observed with unforeseen accuracy and resolution, variations that reflect changes in the Earth system), navigation and fundamental physics.
We also welcome papers for further applications and invite contributions covering the theoretical description of the new methods, introducing novel theoretical concepts as well as new modelling schemes.
With our best wishes,
Prof. Dr. Juergen Mueller
Institute of Geodesy, University Hannover
Dr. Roberto Peron
IAPS-INAF, Roma