ESA’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) was launched in 2009 and flew over Earth at 260 km of altitude for 4 years.
Even after the end of this mission, GOCE’s data is still being used to unearth secrets about our planet.
Stay with us if you want to learn more about the Earth Explorers: ESA’s pioneering science missions for Earth.
📽️ ESA – European Space Agency
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Forging state-of-the-art space technologies, our Earth Explorer satellite missions continue to surpass expectations with a range of interesting and complementary results that go beyond their original goals. In this video, learn how each mission is contributing to Earth science, and changing the way we look at our beloved planet.
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Launched on 17 March 2009, ESA’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) is bringing about a whole new level of understanding of one of Earth’s most fundamental forces of nature: the gravity field. Dubbed the ‘Formula 1’ of satellites, GOCE is mapping Earth’s gravity field in unprecedented detail.
This has given rise to a unique model of the ‘geoid’, which is the surface of an hypothetical global ocean in the absence of tides and currents, shaped only by gravity. It is a crucial reference for measuring ocean circulation and sea-level change, which are affected by climate change.
The colours in the image represent deviations in height ( -100 m to + 100 m) from an ideal geoid. The blue colours represent low values and the reds/yellows represent high values.
See also: Earth’s gravity revealed in unprecedented detail at: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM1AK6UPLG_index_0.html
To achieve its crucial scientific objectives, ESA’s ‘Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer’, or GOCE, satellite must orbit as low as possible, in order to sense minute variations in the Earth’s gravitational field – at the edge of space and the limits of the atmosphere at only 268 km!