The current design of space-based gravitational wave detectors utilizes heterodyne laser interferometry in inter-satellite science measurements. Frequency variations of the heterodyne beatnotes are predominantly caused by the Doppler effect from relative satellite motion along lines of sight. Generally considered to be outside the measurement band, this Doppler frequency shift appears to have been overlooked in numerical simulations of time-delay interferometry (TDI). However, the potential impact on the implementation of TDI should be assessed. The issue is particularly relevant to TianQin that features geocentric orbits, because of strong gravity disturbances from the Earth-Moon system at frequencies $<1\times 10^{-4}$ Hz. In this proof-of-principle study, based on high-precision orbital data obtained from detailed gravity field modeling, we incorporate the Doppler shift in the generation of TianQin's beatnote phase signals. To remove the large-scale Doppler phase drift at frequencies $<1\times 10^{-4}$ Hz, we develop a high-performance high-pass filter and consider two possible processing sequences, i.e., applying the filter before or after TDI combinations. Our simulation results favor the former and demonstrate successful removal of the low-frequency gravity disturbances for TianQin without degrading the TDI performance, assuming 10 m pseudo-ranging uncertainty. The filtering scheme can be used in developing the initial noise-reduction pipeline for TianQin.

10 pages, 11 figures, revised to match the version accepted by Phys. Rev. D