Federica Migliaccio
Professor of Geodesy and Geomatics
Politecnico di Milano
Federica Migliaccio (https://satgeo.dica.polimi.it/) is full professor of geodesy and geomatics at Politecnico di Milano, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her main research field is satellite geodesy, with particular interest in satellite gradiometry. She participated in the study and data analysis of the ESA GOCE mission for the recovery of the Earth gravity field by the “space-wise” approach. In recent years her research regarded satellite gravimetry studies for the determination of models of the Earth gravity field, based on quantum sensors. Such studies were pursued in two projects funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), proposing different mission concepts: MOCASS (quantum satellite gradiometry) and MOCAST+ (quantum interferometric sensors combined with atomic clock data). At the moment she is involved in the ESA project QSG4EMT (Quantum Space Gravimetry for monitoring Earth’s Mass Transport processes) for the analysis of QSG mission architectures that can optimally recover the time variable part of the gravity field of the Earth related to mass transport processes and in the Horizon Europe project CARIOQA-PMP (Cold Atom Rubidium Interferometer in Orbit for Quantum Accelerometry – Pathfinder Mission Preparation) for the preparation of a European Quantum Pathfinder Mission.
Title/Abstract:
Applying the space-wise approach to concepts of future quantum missions for the Earth gravity field determination
In the framework of gravity field modelling from satellite mission data, the PoliMi group had designed and developed a space-wise approach based on multi-step collocation, which has been exploited to process gradiometric data, like those observed by GOCE. In the past years, this approach has been successfully used to retrieve estimates of the geopotential coefficients from numerical simulations of future gravity mission concepts, including mission scenarios based on cold atom sensors such as quantum (or hybrid) accelerometers and quantum gradiometers. The numerical simulations have also allowed to compare performances of electrostatic and quantum accelerometers, showing that quantum instruments could carry an improvement when coupled with a sufficiently accurate laser ranging interferometer in the case of low-low SST mission concepts.