This dataset provides Rapid Science Orbits (RSO) from the Low Earth Orbiter (LEO) satellite GRACE-A. It is part of the compilation of GFZ RSO products for various LEO missions and the appropriate GNSS constellation in sp3 format. The individual solutions for each satellite mission are published with individual DOI as part of the compilation (Schreiner et al., 2022).
• The GRACE RSO cover the period:
- GRACE-A from 2004 200 to 2017 334 (this DOI)
- GRACE-B from 2004 200 to 2017 245
The LEO RSOs in version 1 are generated based on the 24-hour GPS RSOs in two pieces for the actual day with arc lengths of 14 hours and overlaps of 2 hours. One starting at 22:00 and ending at 12:00, one starting at 10:00 and ending at 24:00. For day overlapping arcs two 24h GNSS constellations are concatenated. The accuracy of the LEO RSOs is at the level of 1-2 cm in terms of SLR validation.
Each solution in version 1 is given in the Conventional Terrestrial Reference System (CTS) based on the IERS 2003 conventions and related to the ITRF-2008 reference frame. The exact time covered by an arc is defined in the header of the files and indicated as well as in the filename.
Orbital products describe positions and velocities of satellites, be it the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) satellites or Low Earth Orbiter (LEO) satellites. These orbital products can be divided into the fastest available ones, the Near Realtime Orbits (NRT), which are mostly available within 15 to 60 minutes delay, followed by Rapid Science Orbit (RSO) products with a latency of two days and finally the Precise Science Orbit (PSO) which, with a latency of up to a few weeks, are the most delayed. The absolute positional accuracy increases with the time delay.