A two-state Kalman estimator for atomic gravimetry

Abstract

We present a two-state Kalman estimator of gravity acceleration and evaluate its performance by numerical simulations and post-measurement demonstration with real-world atomic gravimetry. We show that the estimator-enhanced gravimetry significantly improves upon both short-term sensitivity and long-term stability. The estimates of gravity acceleration demonstrate a \tau^{1/2} feature well under white phase noise in the short term, and continue to improve as \tau^{-1/2} or improve faster as \tau^{-1} in the long term. This work validates the estimation of gravity acceleration as a key topic for future atomic gravimetry.