This special dataset covers the 20 days of the GOCE re-entry phase, from 20 October 2013 to the end of mission on 11 November.

GOCE de-orbiting special data include all the nominal Level-1b data, i.e. the EGG gradiometer data, the orbital data from the SSTI GPS receiver and the attitude information from the Star Trackers, all the nominal Level-2 data (except for the EGG_TRF_2), and a special set of data with further dynamical and environmental information such as on-board magnetometer measurements of Earth's magnetic field, currents actuating the magnetic torquers, and linear accelerations sensed by the six ultra-sensitive accelerometers.

GOCE de-orbiting started at an equatorial altitude of 224 km on 20 October when the ion thruster was switched off and GOCE was left to free-fall in the atmosphere. The satellite eventually disintegrated in the atmosphere on 11 November, at the extremely low altitude of around 115 km.

During de-orbiting and re-entry, all instruments continued working almost to the end, making this dataset unique.

The EGG gradiometer performed nominally up to the point when the drag levels reached 80 mN, at a mean altitude of 181 km, on 7 November. After that, measurements were affected by saturation but were still usable, limited to the portion of the orbit where the accelerometers were still within their dynamic range. An increasing portion of the orbit was eventually saturated as the atmospheric density increased, with the descending spacecraft's altitude.

Acceleration measurements from the Drag-Free control (DFACS) channel are available almost to the end, down to an altitude of around 154 km, on 10 November.

Both on-board GPS receivers, the SSTI-A and B instruments, remained ON in measurement mode until the very end of mission. Neither SSTI showed a significant degradation in performance during orbital decay.

This data set is expected to provide a valuable asset to researchers involved in re-entry dynamics, geomagnetism and thermospheric studies.

Download

Download the GOCE Re-Entry phase dataset from the GOCE Online Dissemination Service.

Contacts

If you have general questions about the data, their quality and availability, please submit a request in the TellUS system.