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. 2019 Jul 19;123(3):031101.
doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.031101.

In-Orbit Performance of the GRACE Follow-on Laser Ranging Interferometer

Klaus Abich  1 , Alexander Abramovici  2 , Bengie Amparan  3 , Andreas Baatzsch  4 , Brian Bachman Okihiro  2 , David C Barr  2 , Maxime P Bize  2 , Christina Bogan  5 , Claus Braxmaier  1 , Michael J Burke  2 , Ken C Clark  2 , Christian Dahl  4 , Katrin Dahl  4 , Karsten Danzmann  5 , Mike A Davis  3 , Glenn de Vine  2 , Jeffrey A Dickson  2 , Serge Dubovitsky  2 , Andreas Eckardt  6 , Thomas Ester  7 , Germán Fernández Barranco  5 , Reinhold Flatscher  8 , Frank Flechtner  9   10 , William M Folkner  2 , Samuel Francis  2 , Martin S Gilbert  2 , Frank Gilles  4 , Martin Gohlke  1 , Nicolas Grossard  11 , Burghardt Guenther  6 , Philipp Hager  4 , Jerome Hauden  11 , Frank Heine  7 , Gerhard Heinzel  5 , Mark Herding  4 , Martin Hinz  12 , James Howell  3 , Mark Katsumura  2 , Marina Kaufer  4 , William Klipstein  2 , Alexander Koch  5 , Micah Kruger  3 , Kameron Larsen  2 , Anton Lebeda  13 , Arnold Lebeda  13 , Thomas Leikert  12 , Carl Christian Liebe  2 , Jehhal Liu  2 , Lynette Lobmeyer  3 , Christoph Mahrdt  5 , Thomas Mangoldt  6 , Kirk McKenzie  2 , Malte Misfeldt  5 , Phillip R Morton  2 , Vitali Müller  5 , Alexander T Murray  2 , Don J Nguyen  2 , Kolja Nicklaus  4 , Robert Pierce  3 , Joshua A Ravich  2 , Gretchen Reavis  3 , Jens Reiche  5 , Josep Sanjuan  1 , Daniel Schütze  5 , Christoph Seiter  7 , Daniel Shaddock  2 , Benjamin Sheard  5 , Michael Sileo  3 , Robert Spero  2 , Gary Spiers  2 , Gunnar Stede  5 , Michelle Stephens  3 , Andrew Sutton  2 , Joseph Trinh  2 , Kai Voss  4 , Duo Wang  2 , Rabi T Wang  2 , Brent Ware  2 , Henry Wegener  5 , Steve Windisch  7 , Christopher Woodruff  2 , Bernd Zender  6 , Marcus Zimmermann  12
Affiliations

In-Orbit Performance of the GRACE Follow-on Laser Ranging Interferometer

Klaus Abich et al. Phys Rev Lett. .

Abstract

The Laser Ranging Interferometer (LRI) instrument on the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow-On mission has provided the first laser interferometric range measurements between remote spacecraft, separated by approximately 220 km. Autonomous controls that lock the laser frequency to a cavity reference and establish the 5 degrees of freedom two-way laser link between remote spacecraft succeeded on the first attempt. Active beam pointing based on differential wave front sensing compensates spacecraft attitude fluctuations. The LRI has operated continuously without breaks in phase tracking for more than 50 days, and has shown biased range measurements similar to the primary ranging instrument based on microwaves, but with much less noise at a level of 1 nm/sqrt[Hz] at Fourier frequencies above 100 mHz.

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