Quality and Distribution of Terrestrial Gravity Data for Precise Regional Geoid Modeling: A Generalized Setup

Author(s):  
Christian Gerlach ◽  
Vegard Ophaug ◽  
Ove Christian Dahl Omang ◽  
Martina Idžanović
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (24) ◽  
pp. 213-225
Author(s):  
Shazad Jamal Jalal ◽  
Tajul Ariffin Musa ◽  
Ami Hassan Md Din ◽  
Wan Anom Wan Aris

Gravity data and computing gravity anomalies are regarded as vital for both geophysics and physical geodesy fields. The mountainous areas of Iraq are characterized by the lack of regional gravity data because gravity surveys are rarely performed in the past four decades due to the Iraq-Iran war and the internal unstable political situation of this particular region. In addition, the formal map of the available terrestrial gravity which was published by the French Database of Bureau Gravimetrique International (International Gravimetric Bureau-in English) (BGI), introduces Iraq and the study area as a remote area and in white color because of the unavailability of gravity data. However, a dense and local (not regional) gravity data is available which was conducted by geophysics researchers 13 years ago. Therefore, the regional gravity survey of 160 gravity points was performed by the authors at an average 11 km apart, which was covers the whole area of Sulaymaniyah Governorate (part of the mountainous areas of Iraq). In spite of Although the risk of mine fields within the study area, suitable safe routes as well as a helicopter was used for the gravity survey of several points on the top of mountains. The survey was conducted via Lacoste and Romberg geodetic gravimeter and GPS handheld. The objective of the study is to determine and map the gravity anomalies for the entire study area, the data of which would assist different geosciences applications.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirko Scheinert ◽  
Philipp Zingerle ◽  
Theresa Schaller ◽  
Roland Pail ◽  
Martin Willberg

<p>In the frame of the IAG Subcommission 2.4f “Gravity and Geoid in Antarctica” (AntGG) a first Antarctic-wide grid of ground-based gravity anomalies was released in 2016 (Scheinert et al. 2016). That data set was provided with a grid space of 10 km and covered about 73% of the Antarctic continent. Since then a considerably amount of new data has been made available, mainly collected by means of airborne gravimetry. Regions which were formerly void of any terrestrial gravity observations and have now been surveyed include especially the polar data gap originating from GOCE satellite gravimetry. Thus, it is timely to come up with an updated and enhanced regional gravity field solution for Antarctica. For this, we aim to improve further aspects in comparison to the AntGG 2016 solution: The grid spacing will be enhanced to 5 km. Instead of providing gravity anomalies only for parts of Antarctica, now the entire continent should be covered. In addition to the gravity anomaly also a regional geoid solution should be provided along with further desirable functionals (e.g. gravity anomaly vs. disturbance, different height levels).</p><p>We will discuss the expanded AntGG data base which now includes terrestrial gravity data from Antarctic surveys conducted over the past 40 years. The methodology applied in the analysis is based on the remove-compute-restore technique. Here we utilize the newly developed combined spherical-harmonic gravity field model SATOP1 (Zingerle et al. 2019) which is based on the global satellite-only model GOCO05s and the high-resolution topographic model EARTH2014. We will demonstrate the feasibility to adequately reduce the original gravity data and, thus, to also cross-validate and evaluate the accuracy of the data especially where different data set overlap. For the compute step the recently developed partition-enhanced least-squares collocation (PE-LSC) has been used (Zingerle et al. 2021, in review; cf. the contribution of Zingerle et al. in the same session). This method allows to treat all data available in Antarctica in one single computation step in an efficient and fast way. Thus, it becomes feasible to iterate the computations within short time once any input data or parameters are changed, and to easily predict the desirable functionals also in regions void of terrestrial measurements as well as at any height level (e.g. gravity anomalies at the surface or gravity disturbances at constant height).</p><p>We will discuss the results and give an outlook on the data products which shall be finally provided to present the new regional gravity field solution for Antarctica. Furthermore, implications for further applications will be discussed e.g. with respect to geophysical modelling of the Earth’s interior (cf. the contribution of Schaller et al. in session G4.3).</p>


2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 34-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wu Yunlong ◽  
Li Hui ◽  
Zou Zhengbo ◽  
Kang Kaixuan

Author(s):  
Leland Timothy Long ◽  
Ronald Douglas Kaufmann

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammed Raşit Çevikalp ◽  
Bihter Erol ◽  
Bilal Mutlu ◽  
Serdar Erol

<p>The maintenance of leveling benchmark is both laborious and costly due to distortions caused by geodynamic activities and local deformations. It is necessary to realize geoid-based vertical datum, which also enables calculation from ellipsoidal heights obtained from GNSS to orthometric heights that have physical meaning. It can be considered as an important step for height system unification as it eliminates the problems stem from the conventional vertical datum. The ongoing height modernization efforts in Turkey focus to improve quality and coverage of the gravity data, eliminate errors in existing terrestrial gravity measurements in order to achieve a precise geoid model. Accuracy of the geopotential model is crucial while realizing a geoid model based vertical datum as well as unifying the regional height systems with the International Heights Reference System. In this point of view, we assessed the accuracies of recently released global geopotential models including XGM2019e_2159, GECO, EIGEN-6C4, EGM2008, SGG-UGM-1, EIGEN-6C3stat, and EIGEN-6C2 using high order GNSS/leveling control benchmarks and terrestrial gravity data in Turkey. The reason for choosing these models in the validations is their relatively higher spatial resolutions and improved accuracies compared to other GGMs in published validation results with globally distributed terrestrial data. The GNSS/leveling data used in validations include high accuracy GNSS coordinates in ITRF datum with co-located Helmert orthometric heights in regional vertical datum. 100 benchmarks are homogeneously distributed in the country with the benchmarks along the coastlines. In addition, the terrestrial gravity anomalies with 5 arc-minute resolution were also used in the tests. In order to have comparable results, residual terrain effect has been restored to the GGM derived parameters. Numerical tests revealed significant differences in accuracies of the tested GGMs. The most accurate GGM has the comparable performance with official regional geoid model solutions in Turkey. The drawn results in the study were interpreted and discussed from practical applications and height system unification points in conclusion.</p>


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