scholarly journals COMPUTATION OF GRAVITY FIELD FUNCTIONALS WITH A LOCALIZED LEVEL ELLIPSOID

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (24) ◽  
pp. 226-242
Author(s):  
Chivatsi Jonathan Nyoka ◽  
Ami Hassan Md Din ◽  
Muhammad Faiz Pa’suya

The description of the earth’s gravity field is usually expressed in terms of spherical harmonic coefficients, derived from global geopotential models. These coefficients may be used to evaluate such quantities as geoid undulations, gravity anomalies, gravity disturbances, deflection of the vertical, etc. To accomplish this, a global reference normal ellipsoid, such as WGS84 and GRS80, is required to provide the computing reference surface. These global ellipsoids, however, may not always provide the best fit of the local geoid and may provide results that are aliased. In this study, a regional or localized geocentric level ellipsoid is used alongside the EGM2008 to compute gravity field functionals in the state of Johor. Residual gravity field quantities are then computed using GNSS-levelled and raw gravity data, and the results are compared with both the WGS84 and the GRS80 equipotential surfaces. It is demonstrated that regional level ellipsoids may be used to compute gravity field functionals with a better fit, provided the zero-degree spherical harmonic is considered. The resulting residual quantities are smaller when compared with those obtained with global ellipsoids. It is expected that when the remove-compute-restore method is employed with such residuals, the numerical quadrature of the Stoke’s integral may be evaluated on reduced gravity anomalies that are smoother compared to when global equipotential surfaces are used

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>


Author(s):  
A. Tugi ◽  
A. H. M. Din ◽  
K. M. Omar ◽  
A. S. Mardi ◽  
Z. A. M. Som ◽  
...  

The Earth’s potential information is important for exploration of the Earth’s gravity field. The techniques of measuring the Earth’s gravity using the terrestrial and ship borne technique are time consuming and have limitation on the vast area. With the space-based measuring technique, these limitations can be overcome. The satellite gravity missions such as Challenging Mini-satellite Payload (CHAMP), Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), and Gravity-Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer Mission (GOCE) has introduced a better way in providing the information on the Earth’s gravity field. From these satellite gravity missions, the Global Geopotential Models (GGMs) has been produced from the spherical harmonics coefficient data type. The information of the gravity anomaly can be used to predict the bathymetry because the gravity anomaly and bathymetry have relationships between each other. There are many GGMs that have been published and each of the models gives a different value of the Earth’s gravity field information. Therefore, this study is conducted to assess the most reliable GGM for the Malaysian Seas. This study covered the area of the marine area on the South China Sea at Sabah extent. Seven GGMs have been selected from the three satellite gravity missions. The gravity anomalies derived from the GGMs are compared with the airborne gravity anomaly, in order to figure out the correlation (R<sup>2</sup>) and the root mean square error (RMSE) of the data. From these assessments, the most suitable GGMs for the study area is GOCE model, GO_CONS_GCF_2_TIMR4 with the R<sup>2</sup> and RMSE value of 0.7899 and 9.886 mGal, respectively. This selected model will be used in the estimating the bathymetry for Malaysian Seas in future.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arcangela Bollino ◽  
Anna Maria Marotta ◽  
Federica Restelli ◽  
Alessandro Regorda ◽  
Roberto Sabadini

&lt;p&gt;Subduction is responsible for surface displacements and deep mass redistribution. This rearrangement generates density anomalies in a wide spectrum of wavelengths which, in turn, causes important anomalies in the Earth's gravity field that are visible as lineaments parallel to the arc-trench systems. In these areas, when the traditional analysis of the deformation and stress fields is combined with the analysis of the perturbation of the gravity field and its slow time variation, new information on the background environment controlling the tectonic loading phase can be disclosed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here we present the results of a comparative analysis between the geodetically retrieved gravitational anomalies, based on the EIGEN-6C4 model, and those predicted by a 2D thermo-chemical mechanical modeling of the Sumatra and Mariana complexes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The 2D model accounts for a wide range of parameters, such as the convergence velocity, the shallow dip angle, the different degrees of coupling between the facing plates. The marker in cell technique is used to compositionally differentiate the system. Phase changes in the crust and in the mantle and mantle hydration are also allowed. To be compliant with the geodetic EIGEN-6C4 gravity data, we define a model normal Earth considering the vertical density distribution at the margins of the model domain, where the masses are not perturbed by the subduction process.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Model predictions are in good agreement with data, both in terms of wavelengths and magnitude of the gravity anomalies measured in the surroundings of the Sumatra and Marina subductions. Furthermore, our modeling supports that the differences in the style of the gravity anomaly observed in the two areas are attributable to the different environments &amp;#8211; ocean-ocean or ocean-continental subduction &amp;#8211; that drives a significantly different dynamic in the wedge area.&lt;/p&gt;


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
O.I. Apeh ◽  
E.C. Moka ◽  
V.N. Uzodinma

Abstract Spherical harmonic expansion is a commonly applied mathematical representation of the earth’s gravity field. This representation is implied by the potential coeffcients determined by using elements/parameters of the field observed on the surface of the earth and/or in space outside the earth in the spherical harmonic expansion of the field. International Centre for Gravity Earth Models (ICGEM) publishes, from time to time, Global Gravity Field Models (GGMs) that have been developed. These GGMs need evaluation with terrestrial data of different locations to ascertain their accuracy for application in those locations. In this study, Bouguer gravity anomalies derived from a total of eleven (11) recent GGMs, using sixty sample points, were evaluated by means of Root-Mean-Square difference and correlation coeficient. The Root-Mean-Square differences of the computed Bouguer anomalies from ICGEMwebsite compared to their positionally corresponding terrestrial Bouguer anomalies range from 9.530mgal to 37.113mgal. Additionally, the correlation coe_cients of the structure of the signal of the terrestrial and GGM-derived Bouguer anomalies range from 0.480 to 0.879. It was observed that GECO derived Bouguer gravity anomalies have the best signal structure relationship with the terrestrial data than the other ten GGMs. We also discovered that EIGEN-6C4 and GECO derived Bouguer anomalies have enormous potential to be used as supplements to the terrestrial Bouguer anomalies for Enugu State, Nigeria.


2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 964-970
Author(s):  
V. N. Koneshov ◽  
S. A. Krylov ◽  
D. S. Loginov ◽  
V. B. Nepoklonov

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-291
Author(s):  
G. R. J. Cooper

Abstract. Measurements of the earth's gravity field are widely used in geophysical exploration programs. The geological interpretation process often involves the identification of the boundaries, or edges, of different regions. This can be achieved through a variety of techniques. This paper examines the statistical distribution of the size of the edges produced by a synthetic gravity model, and compares the results with those obtained from a gravity dataset from South Africa.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2066
Author(s):  
Alessandra Borghi ◽  
Riccardo Barzaghi ◽  
Omar Al-Bayari ◽  
Suhail Al Madani

In 2014, the Jeddah Municipality made a call for an estimate of a centimetric precision geoid model to be used for engineering and surveying applications, because the regional geoid model available at that time did not reach a sufficient precision. A project was set up to this end and dedicated sets of gravity and Global Positioning System (GPS)/levelling data were acquired in the framework of this project. In this paper, a thorough analysis of these newly acquired data and of the last available Global Gravity Field Models (GGMs) has been done in order to obtain a geoid undulation estimate with the prescribed precision. In the framework of the Remove–Compute–Restore (RCR) approach, the collocation method was used to obtain the height anomaly estimation that was then converted to geoid undulation. The remove and restore steps of the RCR approach were based on GGMs, derived from the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) dedicated gravity satellite missions, which were used to improve the long wavelength components of the Earth’s gravity field. Furthermore, two different quasi-geoid collocation estimates were computed, based on gravity data only and on gravity plus GPS/levelling data (the so-called hybrid estimate). The best solutions were obtained with the hybrid geoid estimate. This was tested by comparison with an independent set of GPS/levelling geoid undulations that were not included in the computed solutions. By these tests, the precision of the hybrid geoid is estimated to be 3.7 cm. This precision proved to be better, by a factor of two, than the corresponding one estimated from the pure gravimetric geoid. This project has been also useful to verify the importance and reliability of GGMs developed from the last satellite gravity missions (GOCE and GRACE) that have significantly improved our knowledge of the long wavelength components of the Earth’s gravity field, especially in areas with poor coverage of terrestrial gravity data. In fact, the geoid models based on satellite-only GGMs proved to have a better performance, despite the lower spatial resolution with respect to high-resolution models (i.e., Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM2008)).


2014 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walyeldeen Godah ◽  
Malgorzata Szelachowska ◽  
Jan Krynski

Abstract The GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) has significantly upgraded the knowledge on the Earth gravity field. In this contribution the accuracy of height anomalies determined from Global Geopotential Models (GGMs) based on approximately 27 months GOCE satellite gravity gradiometry (SGG) data have been assessed over Poland using three sets of precise GNSS/levelling data. The fits of height anomalies obtained from 4th release GOCE-based GGMs to GNSS/levelling data were discussed and compared with the respective ones of 3rd release GOCE-based GGMs and the EGM08. Furthermore, two highly accurate gravimetric quasigeoid models were developed over the area of Poland using high resolution Faye gravity anomalies. In the first, the GOCE-based GGM was used as a reference geopotential model, and in the second - the EGM08. They were evaluated with GNSS/levelling data and their accuracy performance was assessed. The use of GOCE-based GGMs for recovering the long-wavelength gravity signal in gravimetric quasigeoid modelling was discussed.


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