GENESIS: Co-location of Geodetic Techniques in Space
Creators: name: Delva, Pacôme
name: Altamimi, Zuheir
name: Blazquez, Alejandro
name: Blossfeld, Mathis
name: Böhm, Johannes
name: Bonnefond, Pascal
name: Boy, Jean-Paul
name: Bruinsma, Sean
name: Bury, Grzegorz
name: Chatzinikos, Miltiadis
name: Couhert, Alexandre
name: Courde, Clément
name: Dach, Rolf
name: Dehant, Véronique
name: Dell'Agnello, Simone
name: Elgered, Gunnar
name: Enderle, Werner
name: Exertier, Pierre
name: Glaser, Susanne
name: Haas, Rüdiger
name: Huang, Wen
name: Hugentobler, Urs
name: Jäggi, Adrian
name: Karatekin, Ozgur
name: Lemoine, Frank G.
name: Poncin-Lafitte, Christophe Le
name: Lunz, Susanne
name: Männel, Benjamin
name: Mercier, Flavien
name: Métivier, Laurent
name: Meyssignac, Benoît
name: Müller, Jürgen
name: Nothnagel, Axel
name: Perosanz, Felix
name: Rietbroek, Roelof
name: Rothacher, Markus
name: Sert, Hakan
name: Sosnica, Krzysztof
name: Testani, Paride
name: Ventura-Traveset, Javier
name: Wautelet, Gilles
name: Zajdel, Radoslaw
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det)
subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph)
subject: Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)
subject: Geophysics (physics.geo-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Improving and homogenizing time and space reference systems on Earth and, more directly, realizing the Terrestrial Reference Frame (TRF) with an accuracy of 1mm and a long-term stability of 0.1mm/year are relevant for many scientific and societal endeavors. The knowledge of the TRF is fundamental for Earth and navigation sciences. For instance, quantifying sea level change strongly depends on an accurate determination of the geocenter motion but also of the positions of continental and island reference stations, as well as the ground stations of tracking networks. Also, numerous applications in geophysics require absolute millimeter precision from the reference frame, as for example monitoring tectonic motion or crustal deformation for predicting natural hazards. The TRF accuracy to be achieved represents the consensus of various authorities which has enunciated geodesy requirements for Earth sciences. Today we are still far from these ambitious accuracy and stability goals for the realization of the TRF. However, a combination and co-location of all four space geodetic techniques on one satellite platform can significantly contribute to achieving these goals. This is the purpose of the GENESIS mission, proposed as a component of the FutureNAV program of the European Space Agency. The GENESIS platform will be a dynamic space geodetic observatory carrying all the geodetic instruments referenced to one another through carefully calibrated space ties. The co-location of the techniques in space will solve the inconsistencies and biases between the different geodetic techniques in order to reach the TRF accuracy and stability goals endorsed by the various international authorities and the scientific community. The purpose of this white paper is to review the state-of-the-art and explain the benefits of the GENESIS mission in Earth sciences, navigation sciences and metrology.
description: 31 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Earth, Planets and Space (EPS)