A new test of gravitational redshift using Galileo satellites: The GREAT experiment
Open accessAbstract
We present the result of the analysis of the GREAT (Galileo gravitational Redshift test with Eccentric sATellites) experiment. An elliptic orbit induces a periodic modulation of the fractional frequency difference between a ground clock and the satellite clock, partly due to the gravitational redshift, while the good stability of Galileo clocks allows one to test this periodic modulation to a high level of accuracy. GSAT0201 and GSAT0202, with their large eccentricity and on-board H-maser clocks, are perfect candidates to perform this test. Satellite laser ranging data allows us to partly decorrelate the orbit perturbations from the clock errors. By analyzing several years of Galileo tracking data, we have been able to improve the Gravity probe A test (1976) of the gravitational redshift by a factor of 5.6, providing, to our knowledge, the first reported improvement since more than 40 years.
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The Galileo gravitational redshift test concluded b_H-maser = (0.19 ± 2.46) × 10^-5.
“b HÀmaser ¼ ð0:19 Æ 2:46Þ Â 10 À5”
From Fundamental constants: from measurement to the universe, a window on gravitation and cosmology (2025) · cites this paper as Delva et al. 2019
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- Authors
- Delva, P., Puchades, N., Schönemann, E., Dilssner, F., Courde, C., Bertone, S., Gonzalez, F., Hees, A., Le Poncin-Lafitte, C., Meynadier, F., Prieto-Cerdeira, R., Sohet, B., Ventura-Traveset, J., & Wolf, P.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- European Space Operations Centre (DE)
- Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (FR)
- University of Bern (CH)
- European Space Research and Technology Centre (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Delva, Pacôme
- ORCID
- Venue
- Comptes Rendus. Physique
- Publisher
- MathDoc/Centre Mersenne
- Published
- 2019-03-01
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 176-182
- ISSN
- 1631-0705 (ISSN-L)
- 1878-1535
- OpenAlex
- W2944687278
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 8
- FWCI
- 1.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Comptes Rendus Physique (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Aarhus Universitetsforlag eBooks (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Physical Reports (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- European Space Agency
- Generalitat Valenciana (APOSTD2017)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Advanced Frequency and Time Standards
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Relativity and Gravitational Theory
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Aerospace Engineering › GNSS positioning and interference
- Keywords
- gravitational redshift, Galileo satellites, eccentric orbits, satellite laser ranging, orbital perturbations
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