Absolute airborne gravimetry with a cold atom sensor

• DOI: 10.1007/s00190-020-01350-2
• Publication Date: 2020-01-31T12:02:54Z
• Authors: Yannick Bidel; Nassim Zahzam; Alexandre Bresson; Cédric Blanchard; Malo Cadoret; Arne V. Olesen; René Forsberg
• Keywords: AIRBORNE; Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors; [SDU.STU.GP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; AEROPORTEE; FOS: Physical sciences; Applied Physics (physics.app-ph); ABSOLUE; 01 natural sciences; GRAVIMETER; Physics - Geophysics; GRAVIMETRE; 0103 physical sciences; ABSOLUTE; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-INS-DET]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Instrumentation and Detectors [physics.ins-det]; [PHYS]Physics [physics]; Gravimeter; Physics - Applied Physics; Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det); Atom interferometry; Absolute; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-GEN-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/General Physics [physics.gen-ph]; Geophysics (physics.geo-ph); INTERFEROMETRIE ATOMIQUE; 13. Climate action; Airborne; ATOM INTERFEROMETRY

Measuring gravity from an aircraft is essential in geodesy, geophysics and exploration. Today, only relative sensors are available for airborne gravimetry. This is a major drawback because of the calibration and drift estimation procedures which lead to important operational constraints and measurement errors. Here, we report an absolute airborne gravimeter based on atom interferometry. This instrument has been first tested on a motion simulator leading to gravity measurements noise of 0.3 mGal for 75 s filtering time constant. Then, we realized an airborne campaign across Iceland in April 2017. From a repeated line and crossing points, we obtain gravity measurements with an estimated error between 1.7 and 3.9 mGal. The airborne measurements have also been compared to upward continued ground gravity data and show differences with a standard deviation ranging from 3.3 to 6.2 mGal and a mean value ranging from -0.7 mGal to -1.9 mGal.