Matthias Weigelt is experienced in both research and science management. As Managing Director, he coordinated the Collaborative Research Centre 1128 - geoQ from 2016 to 2019 and the Cluster of Excellence EXC2123 - QuantumFrontiers at Leibniz Universität Hannover from 2019. Matthias Weigelt's academic career previously took him to the University of Stuttgart, the Faculté des Sciences, de la Technologie et de la Communication at the University of Luxembourg and the Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie (Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy).
"A central aspect of my research activities is the development of modelling methods to determine global and regional mass changes from terrestrial and satellite-based observations, in particular the satellite missions CHAMP, GRACE, GOCE and other LEO satellites, with the aim of measuring the Earth's gravity field on all spatial and temporal scales and developing its application potential," explains Weigelt. "In recent years, I have paid particular attention to the consistent combination of data from different satellite missions, including the iterative estimation of error spectra from the residuals, as the error information provided turned out to be incomplete due to the neglect of correlation."
Weigelt's future work at DLR will focus on the use of quantum technology and based-on measurement methods for geodetic applications. The "Satellite Geodesy and Geodetic Modelling" department is researching key application scenarios for the new quantum sensors as well as new measurement methods, also in combination with classical methods. The spectrum of work ranges from determining the Earth's mass transport as a result of climate change and geophysical processes to testing Einstein's theory of relativity in the Earth-Moon system. The work focuses on the development of concepts for gravimetric Earth observation using quantum sensors such as accelerometers and gradiometers, the analysis of spatial and temporal variations of the Earth's gravitational field in the context of future gravity field satellite missions and the integration of high-precision clocks and quantum inertial sensors in the solution of navigation tasks in the user segment.
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