Cold Atom Interferometry in Satellite Geodesy for Sustainable Environmental Management

AbstractOur Earth is a complex system. By monitoring the integrated geodetic-geodynamic processes, we can understand its sub-systems and geographical distribution of its resources. With the development of space techniques and artificial satellites, satellite geodesy era started, e.g., it became possible to observe a wide range of processes, occurring both on and below the Earth's surface. Such observations can be exploited not only in environmental activities, but also in societal activities like natural disasters monitoring. Thus, satellite geodesy can bring great benefits to “Climate action”, one of the 17 sustainable development goals of the United Nation: we can estimate the ice-sheet mass balance and study the impact of climate change by monitoring sea levels. This paper aims to investigate the possible implementation of cold atom sensors for future satellite gravity missions, which would improve our current knowledge of the Earth’s gravity field and contribute into the sustainable environmental management. Graphical Abstract