scholarly journals On the earthquake detectability by the Next Generation Gravity Mission (NGGM)

Author(s):  
Gabriele Cambiotti ◽  
Karim Douch ◽  
Stefano Cesare ◽  
Alberto Anselmi ◽  
Nico Sneeuw ◽  
...  

<p>We perform Next Gerataion Gravity Mission (NGGM) simulations over a 12-year operational period by including in the background gravity field the time-dependent gravity anomalies caused by different earthquake scenarios and considering different sources of error on 28-day mean gravity field solutions: the instrumental errors of the interferometer and accelerometers, the time depenendent background model and the atmosphere-ocean dealiasing. In order to assess whether the observational errors mask or not the earthquake-induced gravity signals, we assume known the background gravity field and the spatial and temporal pattern of the earthquake-induced gravity anomalies. Then, for each earthquake, we estimate the amplitude of its gravity anomaly by inverting the NGGM synthetic data time series and we check its consistency with the expected amplitude, as well as with the null hypothesis. In order to investigate case studies representative of the main earthquake characteristics and their compliance with the NGGM specifications, we have considered normal, inverse and strike-slip focal mechanisms striking with different angles with respect to the polar orbit, reaching the Earth surface and in depth, occurring inland, off-shore and close to the coastlines and at the beginning (2-4 years), at the middle (5-7 years) and at the end (8-10 years) of the 12-year operational period. The fault dimensions and slip distribution vary with the seismic moment magnitude and are prescribed according to the circular fault model by Eshelby (1957). Furthermore, we also consider two different rheological stratifications with asthenospheric viscosity of 10¹⁸ and 10¹⁹ Pa s. In order to discuss whether the earthquake signal can be discriminated from other geophysical processes (like atmosphere, ocean, hydrology and glacial isostatic adjustment), we also perform the same inversion but, this time, its amplitude is estimated jointly with the time dependent background gravity field, which we simply model using static values, trends and periodical functions.</p>

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E Smith ◽  
Maria T Zuber ◽  
Sander J Goossens ◽  
Gregory A Neumann ◽  
Erwan Mazarico

<p>The large anomalies in the lunar gravity field are in most cases the result of large impacts that occurred more than 3 billion years ago.  Today those anomalies provide the stability of the lunar rotation and if removed would cause a change in the position of the intersection of the spin pole with the lithosphere. Thus, extracting a gravity anomaly from today’s gravity field can provide the approximate location of the pole of rotation prior to the impact that caused the anomaly.  By removing the gravity field of each anomaly in order of age, youngest first, we can estimate the path of the lunar pole back 3 to 4 billion years, to the beginning of the time of heavy bombardment.</p><p>Starting from the GRAIL gravity model we selectively remove large gravity anomalies by first determining the center and dimensions of the anomaly from the Bouguer gravity and then deriving the average free air gravity for the Bouguer location and dimensions. The anomaly field is expanded into spherical harmonics and the degree 2 terms used to derive the change in pole position caused by the anomaly. Removing each anomaly in order of increasing age provides an estimate of the pole path from before the time of the first anomaly, SP-A.  Since the pole path depends on the order of the gravity anomalies being created it is important to know when each impact induced anomaly occurred.  The results suggest the re-constructed motion of the lunar pole of rotation is within approximately 10 dgerees of the present pole.</p>


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

<p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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 – ocean-ocean or ocean-continental subduction – that drives a significantly different dynamic in the wedge area.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Fiifi Annan ◽  
Xiaoyun Wan

A regional gravity field product, comprising vertical deflections and gravity anomalies, of the Gulf of Guinea (15°W to 5°E, 4°S to 4°N) has been developed from sea surface heights (SSH) of five altimetry missions. Though the remove-restore technique was adopted, the deflections of the vertical were computed directly from the SSH without the influence of a global geopotential model. The north-component of vertical deflections was more accurate than the east-component by almost three times. Analysis of results showed each satellite can contribute almost equally in resolving the north-component. This is attributable to the nearly northern inclinations of the various satellites. However, Cryosat-2, Jason-1/GM, and SARAL/AltiKa contributed the most in resolving the east-component. We attribute this to the superior spatial resolution of Cryosat-2, the lower inclination of Jason-1/GM, and the high range accuracy of the Ka-band of SARAL/AltiKa. Weights of 0.687 and 0.313 were, respectively, assigned to the north and east components in order to minimize their non-uniform accuracy effect on the resultant gravity anomaly model. Histogram of computed gravity anomalies compared well with those from renowned models: DTU13, SIOv28, and EGM2008. It averagely deviates from the reference models by −0.33 mGal. Further assessment was done by comparing it with a quadratically adjusted shipborne free-air gravity anomalies. After some data cleaning, observations in shallow waters, as well as some ship tracks were still unreliable. By excluding the observations in shallow waters, the derived gravity field model compares well in ocean depths deeper than 2,000 m.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi Sante Zampa ◽  
Emanuele Lodolo ◽  
Nicola Creati ◽  
Martina Busetti ◽  
Gianni Madrussani ◽  
...  

<p>In this study, we present a comparative analysis between two types of gravity data used in geophysical applications: satellite altimeter-derived gravity and sea-bottom gravity.</p><p>It is largely known that the marine gravity field derived from satellite altimetry in coastal areas is generally biased by signals back-scattered from the nearby land. As a result, the derived gravity anomalies are mostly unreliable for geophysical and geological interpretations of near-shore environments.</p><p>To quantify the errors generated by the land-reflected signals and to verify the goodness of the geologic models inferred from gravity, we compared two different altimetry models with sea-bottom gravity measurements acquired along the Italian coasts from the early 50s to the late 80s.</p><p>We focused on the Gulf of Manfredonia, located in the SE sector of the Adriatic Sea, where: (i) two different sea-bottom gravity surveys have been conducted over the years, (ii) the bathymetry is particularly flat, and (iii) seismic data revealed a prominent carbonate ridge covered by hundreds of meters of Oligocene-Quaternary sediments.</p><p>Gravity field derivatives have been used to enhance both: (i) deep geological contacts, and (ii) coastal noise. The analyses outlined a “ringing-noise effect” which causes the altimeter signal degradation up to 17 km from the coast.</p><p>Differences between the observed gravity and the gravity calculated from a geological model constrained by seismic, showed that all datasets register approximately the same patterns, associated with the Gondola Fault Zone, a major structural discontinuity traversing roughly E-W the investigated area.</p><p>This study highlights the importance of implementing gravity anomalies derived from satellite-altimetry with high-resolution near-shore data, such as the sea-bottom gravity measurements available around the Italian coasts. Such analysis may have significant applications in studying the link between onshore and offshore geological structures in transitional areas.</p>


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):  
Petras Petroškevicius ◽  
Romuald Obuchovski ◽  
Rosita Birvydienė ◽  
Ricardas Kolosovskis ◽  
Raimundas Putrimas ◽  
...  

New research of Lithuanian territory gravity field was started in 2016 with aim to improve accuracy of quasigeoid as well as accuracy of normal heights determined by methods of satellite geodesy. Obtained data could be used in the research of geophysics, geodynamics as well as in performing the precise navigation. Quartz automatic gravimeters Scintrex CG-5 are planned to be used for the survey consisting of 30000 points. Method of gravity measurements was worked out. RMS error of gravity determined with this method does not exceed 60 @Gal. Coordinates and heights of measured points are determined with GNSS using LitPOS network and LIT15G quasigeoid model. RMS error of coordinate determination does not exceed 0,20 m, for normal heights – 0,15 m. Method of gravity anomalies determination and their accuracy estimation was prepared.


1978 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 240-240
Author(s):  
M.P. Ananda

AbstractA method for generating long periodic variations in satellite orbital elements when perturbed by discrete gravity anomalies is presented. The method consists of developing a disturbing potential as a function of orbital and gravity anomaly parameters, and generating partial derivatives of the potential with respect to the orbital elements. The partials are averaged over the period of the satellite to eliminate the short periodic variations. The averaged partials are substituted into the variation of parameter equations to give the mean orbital rates. Classically orbital elements are used in generating gravity field and thus the method is dynamic in nature. The problem is extremely cumbersome and complex when multi-state parameters have to be estimated from a considerably large data set. However, when mean orbital rates are used, the problem reduces to a simple linear static case, where only the gravity parameters have to be estimated, and it is a simple matrix inversion problem. Thus the method developed here was utilized in reducing Appolo 15 and 16 subsatellite radio tracking data to produce a lunar gravity field represented by point masses.


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