High-Degree Geopotential Model Solutions

Professor Schutz is science team leader for the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) launched by NASA in 2003 on the Ice, Cloud, and land-Elevation Satellite (ICESat). The GLAS mission is to measure ice-sheet topography and associated temporal changes, as well as cloud and atmospheric properties.

GLAS has already contributed valuable measurements of changes in both Arctic and Antarctic ice coverage. Rapid melting of the Arctic ocean and the calving of large icebergs from Antarctic sea-ice fields have both contributed to and been attributed to changes in the climate, some proportion of which may be caused by human activity. In documenting these changes, Schutz collaborates with many groups of geophysicists worldwide.

In support of GLAS measurements and the measurements now being taken by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), another satellite system, Schutz uses TACC resources to simulate global gravity field models using data recovered from numerous satellites. Schutz examines gravity measurement scenarios for future measurement systems to simulate the expected signal structures, error sensitivites, and overall performance characteristics.