We do a proof-of-principle demonstration of an atomic gravimeter based on survival resonances of dissipatively driven atoms. Exposing laser-cooled atoms to a sequence of near-resonant standing-wave light pulses reveals survival resonances when the standing-wave interference pattern accelerates. The resonant accelerations determine the local gravitational acceleration and we achieve a precision of 5 ppm with a drop distance less than 1 mm. The incisiveness of the resonances scales with the square of the drop time. Present results indicate that an appropriately designed atomic gravimeter based on survival resonances might be able to reach a precision of $1\mu \mathrm{Gal}$ with a 10-cm-high fountain. The relatively simple experimental construction of this technique may be of interest for a compact absolute atomic gravimeter.

• Received 23 August 2018
• Revised 19 October 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.98.063614