Validation of GOCE Gravitational Gradients in Satellite Track Cross-Overs

The important issue of quality assessment of GOCE gravitational gradients is addressed. The validation approach that is investigated compares measured gravitational gradients in satellite track cross-overs (XOs). Important updates and changes of our previous XO processing are presented: XO comparison has to be performed in one and the same coordinate system, which necessitates the transformation of the gravitational gradient tensor. As two of the six independent tensor components are less accurate and the remaining four components contain long-periodic inaccuracies, filtering of the gradient time series and the use of model information is required to enable tensor rotation without loss of accuracy.