Transformation between gravimetric and GPS/levelling-derived geoids using additional gravity information

The transformation from the gravimetric to the GPS/levelling-derived geoid using additional gravity information for the covariance function of geoid height differences has been investigated in a test area in south-western Canada. A “corrector surface” model, which accounts for datum inconsistencies, long-wavelength geoid errors, vertical network distortions and GPS errors, has been constructed using least-squares collocation. The local covariance function of geoid height differences is usually obtained from residual values between the GPS/levelling and gravimetric geoid heights after the elimination of all known systematic distortions. If additional gravity data (in the form of gravity anomalies) are available, the covariance function of geoid height differences can be determined by the following steps: (1) transforming the GPS/levelling-derived geoid heights into gravity anomalies; (2) forming differences between the computed in step 1 and given gravity anomalies; (3) determining the parameters of the local covariance function of the gravity anomaly differences; (4) constructing an analytical covariance model for the geoid height differences from the covariance function of the gravity anomaly differences using the parameters derived in step 3. The advantage of the proposed method stems from the great number of gravity data used to derive the empirical covariance function. A comparison with the least-squares adjustment shows that the standard deviation of the residuals of the predicted geoid height differences with respect to the control point values decreases by 2.4 cm.     

The new quasi-geoid model IRQG09 for Iran

Iran is a mountainous country with large lateral density variations of its crust. Constant density value is commonly used to determine the geoid models as well as topographic corrections. The effect of lateral density variation in the geoid can reach up to 14 cm in Iran which is not negligible in a precise geoid modelling. Also, the current height datum of Iran is based on the orthometric system but the effect of gravity variation was not applied in height parameter. Furthermore, the height systems of most neighbouring countries are defined as normal height. Connection of networks can be useful for the unification of height datum, geodynamics researches and optimal adjustment of levelling network. The new quasi-geoid model based on a recent EGM2008 global geo-potential model was created to solve the mentioned problem. The main purpose of the present study is to discuss the results of a research project in which a gravimetric quasi-geoid model for Iran was computed based on the least-squares modification of Stokes' formula. The evaluation is made using 475 GPS/levelling height anomalies covering the major parts of the country except the mountainous areas to the North and West. After a 7-parameter fit, the most promising attempt achieved a RMS value of 19 cm for the residuals based on the GPS/levelling data.     

Comparison of global geopotential models from the champ and grace missions for regional geoid modelling in Turkey

The continuous efforts on establishment and modernization of the geodetic control in Turkey include a number of regional geoid models that have been determined since 1976. The recently released gravimetric Geoid of Turkey, TG03, is used in geodetic applications where GPS-heights need to be converted to the local vertical datum. To reach a regional geoid model with improved accuracy, the selection of the appropriate global geopotential model is of primary importance. This study assesses the performance of a number of recent satellite-only and combined global geopotential models (GGMs) derived from CHAMP and GRACE missions’ data in comparison to the older EGM96 model, which is the underlying reference model for TG03. In this respect, gravity anomalies and geoid heights from the global geopotential models were compared with terrestrial gravity data and low-pass filtered GPS/levelling data, respectively. Also, five new gravimetric geoid models, computed by the Fast Fourier Transform technique using terrestrial gravity data and the geopotential models, were validated at the GPS/levelling benchmarks. The findings were also compared with the validation results of the TG03 model. The tests showed that as it was expected any of the high-degree combined models (EIGEN-CG03C, EIGEN-GL04C, EGM96) can be employed for determining the gravity anomalies over Turkey. In the west of Turkey, EGM96 and EIGEN-CHAMP03S fit the GPS/levelling surface better. However, all the tested GGMs revealed equal performance when they were employed in gravimetric geoid modelling after de-trending the gravimetric geoid model with corrector surface fitting. The new geoid models have improved accuracy (after fit) compared to TG03.     

Regional gravimetric quasi-geoid model and transformation surface to national height system for Turkey (THG-09)

Turkish regional geoid models have been developed by employing a reference earth gravitational model, surface gravity observations and digital terrain models. The gravimetric geoid models provide a ready transformation from ellipsoidal heights to the orthometric heights through the use of GPS/leveling geoid heights determined through the national geodetic networks. The recent gravimetric models for Turkish territory were computed depending on OSU91 (TG-91) and EGM96 (TG-03) earth gravitational models. The release of the Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM08), the collection of new surface gravity observations, the advanced satellite altimetry-derived gravity over the sea, and the availability of the high resolution digital terrain model have encouraged us to compute a new geoid model for Turkey. We used the Remove-Restore procedure based on EGM08 and applied Residual Terrain Model (RTM) reduction of the surface gravity data. Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) was then used to obtain the residual quasigeoid from the reduced gravity. We restored the individual contributions of EGM08 and RTM to the whole quasi-geoid height (TQG-09). Since the Helmert orthometric height system is adopted in Turkey, the quasi-geoid model (TQG-09) was then converted to the geoid model (TG-09) by making use of Bouguer gravity anomalies and digital terrain model. After all we combined a gravimetric geoid model with GPS/leveling geoid heights in order to obtain a hybrid geoid model (THG-09) (or a transformation surface) to be used in GPS applications. The RMS of the post-fit residuals after the combination was found to be ± 0.95 cm, which represents the internal precision of the final combination. And finally, we tested the hybrid geoid model with GPS/leveling data, which were not used in the combination, to assess the external accuracy. Results show that the external accuracy of the THG-09 model is ± 8.4 cm, a precision previously not achieved in Turkey until this study.     

ANDALUSGeoid2002: The New Gravimetric Geoid Model of Andalusia (Southern Spain)

In 1991 the first determination of a gravimetric geoid in a test area in central Spain was computed by using least square collocation. In 1995 a gravimetric geoid in the Iberian Peninsula, Ibergeo95, was calculated by FFT. Nowadays an improved geoid of Andalusia, ANDALUSGeoid2002, has been computed by fast collocation procedure and remove-restore technique in the GRS80 Reference System. The computations have been done from 16562 free-air gravity anomaly data set, obtained from IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional) and BGI (International Gravity Bureau), the Earth Gravity Model EGM96 and detailed (100 m × 100 m), coarse (5 km × 5 km) and reference (20 km × 20 km) digital terrain models. Relative carrier-phase GPS measurements at 69 benchmarks of the Spanish Levelling Network in Andalusia have been done. The standard deviations of differences between ANDALUSGeoid2002 and GPS/levelling undulations after fitting the tilt have been ± 11 cm, ± 39 cm and ± 38 cm in western, eastern and whole Andalusia, respectively. The ANDALUSGeoid2002 shows an improvement of Ibergeo95 in this territory.     

地形/均衡重力场模型构制及其拟稳分析

重力空白区数据填补的一个主要方法是基于地壳均衡理论进行的,该方法亦用于EGM系列模型的构建中.本文研究了地形数据在构制地形/均衡重力场模型中的应用,分析了补偿深度对Airy位模型和面凝聚位模型的影响,给出二者的最佳补偿深度分别为50 km和40 km.以纯卫星重力模型为参考,后者在前120阶的精度要高于前者,但在121~250阶的精度较低,组合模型精度高于单一模型精度.对地形/均衡地球重力场模型进行了EGM2008拟稳分析,研究了不同分辨率基准的拟稳效果,分析表明：30'分辨率的拟稳基准所得拟稳模型对应的阶方差与参考阶方差曲线直到360阶都有较好的一致性,以EGM2008为基准,其相对累计大地水准面高误差在140阶时为6.83cm,相对累计重力异常误差在220阶时为1.10 mGal.     

Modelling the fine-structure of the geoid: Methods,data requirements and some results

The requirements for precise geoid models on local and regional scales have increased in recent years, primarily due to the ongoing developments in height determination by GPS on land, but also due to oceanographic requirements in using satellite altimetry for recovering dynamic sea-surface topography. Suitable methods for geoid computations from gravity data include Stokes integration, FFT methods, and least-squares collocation. Especially the FFT methods are efficient in handling large amounts of gravity data, and new variants of the methods taking earth curvature rigorously into account provide attractive methods for obtaining continental-scale, high-resolution geoid models. The accuracy of such models may be from 2–5 cm locally, to 50–100 cm on regional scales, depending on gravity data coverage, long wave-length gravity field errors, and datum problems. When approaching the cm-level geoid basic geoid definition questions (geoid or quasigeoid?) become very significant, especially in rugged areas. In the paper the geoid modelling methods and problems are reviewed, and some investigations on local data requirements for cm-level geoid prediction are presented. Some actual results are presented from Scandinavia, where a recent regional high-resolution geoid model yields apparent accuracies of 2–10 cm over GPS baselines of 50 to 2000 km.     

Gravity Anomaly Map over The Black Sea Using Corrected Sea Surface Heights from ERS1, ERS2 and Topex/Poseidon Satellite Altimetry Missions

Approximately nine-year data from ERS1, ERS2 and TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) satellite altimetry missions have been used for the recovery of gravity anomalies over the Black Sea. The Corrected Sea Surface Height product of Aviso/Altimetry has been proven to be homogeneous after a cross-over adjustment. The Least Squares Collocation method was applied in a so-called remove-restore procedure. The residual geoid heights, obtained by subtracting EGM96 geoid heights from cross-over adjusted sea surface heights, were inverted to recover residual gravity anomalies in a grid structure over the Black Sea. Finally, EGM96 free air gravity anomalies were added to the predicted residual gravity anomalies to obtain the free air gravity anomalies. In order to check the consistency with respect to an external source, these computed free air gravity anomalies were compared to ship gravity observations, and to alternative satellite altimetry derived gravity anomalies. Comparisons with the observed gravity data yielded that external consistency of the gravity anomalies computed in this study is about 3 mGal for individual ship tracks. Overall external consistency in the test area is 4.8 mGal. Comparison with other satellite altimetry derived gravity anomalies presented a good agreement.     

A comparison of GOCE gravitational models with EGM2008

Four new gravity field models from GOCE, two of them combined with GRACE, are compared here with EGM2008. The objectives are to look into the differences in consecutive ranges of the spherical harmonic expansion globally as well as in selected geographical regions and in the regions of the various data sources used for EGM2008. In general, GOCE is able to contribute to improved global gravity models in the spherical harmonic range between 120 and 200 (and above). The agreement between EGM2008 and the GOCE models is very good in well-surveyed regions such as North America, Europe and Australia, with geoid RMS-differences on the order of 4–6 cm. In other regions, where the surface gravity data available for the development of EGM2008 were poor, such as South America, Africa, South-East Asia or China the RMS-differences are on a level of 30 cm. Here GOCE leads to a significant improvement. These findings are confirmed by the analysis of the areas of the various EGM2008 data sources. In the regions of the so-called “fill-in” data of EGM2008 RMS-geoid height differences are high. In Antarctica GOCE also gives important improvements in terms of spatial resolution and accuracy. In general, the agreement between EGM2008 and the GOCE-models up to degree and order (d/o) 200 is good, with a global (excluding the polar gaps of GOCE orbits, throughout) geoid difference RMS of 11 cm, in the ocean areas 8 cm and 20 cm in the continental areas. GOCE models are better suited for ocean circulation studies because no prior ocean information enters into the data reduction process, as it is the case when deducing gravity anomalies from an altimetric mean sea surface. On the other hand, the good consistency between GOCE-models and EGM2008 in ocean areas very likely indicates that the influence of ocean circulation information on EGM2008 is rather small. The four tested GOCE models behave similarly except at the highest latitudes where GOCE lacks data due to its orbit inclination of 96.5° and some form of regularization which has to be applied.     

联合多代卫星测高和多源重力数据的局部大地水准面精化方法

本文研究了基于泊松小波径向基函数融合多代卫星测高及多源重力数据精化大地水准面模型的方法.分别以沿轨垂线偏差和大地水准面高高差作为卫星测高观测量,研究了使用不同类型测高数据对于大地水准面建模精度的影响.针对全球潮汐模型在浅水区域及部分开阔海域精度较低的问题,引入局部潮汐模型研究了不同潮汐模型对于大地水准面的影响.数值分析表明:相比于使用沿轨垂线偏差作为测高观测量,基于沿轨大地水准面高高差解算得到的大地水准面模型的精度更高,特别是在海域区域,其精度提高了2.3cm.由于使用沿轨大地水准面高高差作为测高观测量削弱了潮汐模型长波误差的影响,采用不同潮汐模型对大地水准面解算的影响较小.总体而言,船载重力及测高观测数据在海洋重力场的确定中呈现互补性关系,联合两类重力场观测量可以提高局部重力场的建模精度.     

Global detailed geoid computation and model analysis

This paper presents a survey of recent work on the gravimetric geoid. The gravity models considered are those published in the past few years by the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) and the Ohio State University (OSU). Comparisons and analyses have been carried out through the ose of detailed gravimetric geoids which we have computed by combining the above-mentioned models with a set of 26 000, 1^ox1^o mean free air gravity anomalies. The accuracy of the detailed gravimetric geoid computed using the most recent Goddard Earth Model (GEM-6) in conjunction with the set 1^ox1^o mean free air gravity anomalies is assessed at 2 m on the continents of North America, Europe And Australia, 2 to 5 m in the North-East Pacific and North Atlantic areas and 5 to 10 m in other areas where surface gravity data are sparse. Rms differences between this detailed geoid and the detailed geoids computed using the other satellite gravity fields in conjunction with same set of surface data range from 3 to 7 m. The maximum differences in all cases occurred in the Southern Hemisphere where surface data and satellite observations are sparse. These differences exhibited wavelengths of approximately 30^o to 50^o in longitude. Detailed geoidal heights were also computed with models truncated to 12th degree and order as well as 8th degree and order. This truncation resulted in a reduction of the rms differences to a maximum of 5 m. Comparisons have been made with the astrogeodetic data of Rice (United States), Bomford (Europe), and Mather (Australia) and also with geoidal heights from satellite solutions for geocentric station coordinates in North America and the Caribbean.     

Detection of Local Geoid Deformations by Gravity Disturbances from GPS/Gravimetric Observations

This paper deals with a method for detection of local geoid deformations; as a consequence, the methods main application concerns geoid adjustment to GPS/levelling points. This is based on the fact that these points should present no local geoid deformation to avoid errors in the adjustments. These type of miscalculations would lead to an incorrect adjustment and result in further errors in subsequent studies with GPS in the proximity at the point with local deformation.The method proposed is based on predictions of gravity disturbance from geoid undulations using Poisson integral with modified kernel, and its comparison with the gravity disturbance from GPS and gravimetric observations.The use of gravity disturbance instead of gravity anomalies has been chosen since gravity disturbance is a quantity derived from GPS and not from levelling. The loss of accuracy arising with a local height reference system is therefore theoretically avoided as far as the differences in geodetic reference systems regarding positions of gravity measurements and coefficients of the global models are accounted for.Extended numerical tests using computed geoidal undulations and the corresponding gravity disturbances obtained from the geopotential model GPM98cr computed up to degree 720 illustrate the validity of the proposed method and its usefulness as local geoid deformations detection tool.Finally, the method is tested using real GPS/Gravimetric data and geoid models IBERGEO95 and EGG97 with good results.     

Geoid and Sea Surface Topography Derived from ERS-1 Altimeter Data by the Adjoint Method

A method for splitting sea surface height measurements from satellite altimetry into geoid undulations and sea surface topography is presented. The method is based on a combination of the information from altimeter data and a dynamic sea surface height model. The model consists of geoid undulations and a quasi-geostrophic model for expressing the sea surface topography. The goal is the estimation of those values of the parameters of the sea surface height model that provide a least-squares fit of the model to the data. The solution is accomplished by the adjoint method which makes use of the adjoint model for computing the gradient of the cost function of the least-squares adjustment and an optimization algorithm for obtaining improved parameters. The estimation is applied to the North Atlantic. ERS-1 altimeter data of the year 1993 are used. The resulting geoid agrees well with the geoid of the EGM96 gravity model.     

On High-Frequency Topography-Implied Gravity Signals for a Height System Unification Using GOCE-Based Global Geopotential Models

National height reference systems have conventionally been linked to the local mean sea level, observed at individual tide gauges. Due to variations in the sea surface topography, the reference levels of these systems are inconsistent, causing height datum offsets of up to ±1–2 m. For the unification of height systems, a satellite-based method is presented that utilizes global geopotential models (GGMs) derived from ESA’s satellite mission Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE). In this context, height datum offsets are estimated within a least squares adjustment by comparing the GGM information with measured GNSS/leveling data. While the GNSS/leveling data comprises the full spectral information, GOCE GGMs are restricted to long wavelengths according to the maximum degree of their spherical harmonic representation. To provide accurate height datum offsets, it is indispensable to account for the remaining signal above this maximum degree, known as the omission error of the GGM. Therefore, a combination of the GOCE information with the high-resolution Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM2008) is performed. The main contribution of this paper is to analyze the benefit, when high-frequency topography-implied gravity signals are additionally used to reduce the remaining omission error of EGM2008. In terms of a spectral extension, a new method is proposed that does not rely on an assumed spectral consistency of topographic heights and implied gravity as is the case for the residual terrain modeling (RTM) technique. In the first step of this new approach, gravity forward modeling based on tesseroid mass bodies is performed according to the Rock–Water–Ice (RWI) approach. In a second step, the resulting full spectral RWI-based topographic potential values are reduced by the effect of the topographic gravity field model RWI_TOPO_2015, thus, removing the long to medium wavelengths. By using the latest GOCE GGMs, the impact of topography-implied gravity signals on the estimation of height datum offsets is analyzed in detail for representative GNSS/leveling data sets in Germany, Austria, and Brazil. Besides considerable changes in the estimated offset of up to 3 cm, the conducted analyses show that significant improvements of 30–40% can be achieved in terms of a reduced standard deviation and range of the least squares adjusted residuals.     

Update of the precision geoid determination in Korea

From the late 1990s, many studies on local geoid construction have been made in South Korea. However, the precision of the previous geoid has remained about 15 cm due to distribution and quality problems of gravity and GPS/levelling data. Since 2007, new land gravity data and GPS/levelling data have been obtained through many projects such as the Korean Land Spatilaization, Unified Control Point and Gravity survey on the Benchmark. The newly obtained data are regularly distributed to a certain degree and show much better improvement in their quality. In addition, an airborne gravity survey was conducted in 2008 to cover the Korean peninsula (South Korea only). Therefore, it is expected that the precision of the geoid could be improved. In this study, the new South Korean gravimetric geoid and hybrid geoid are presented based on land, airborne, ship‐borne, altimeter gravity data, geopotential model and topographic data. As for the methodology, the general remove‐restore approach was applied with the best chosen parameters in order to produce a precise local geoid. The global geopotential model EGM08 was used to remove the low‐frequency components using degree and order up to 360 and the short wavelength part of the gravity signal was dealt with by using the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data. The parameters determined empirically in this study include for Stokes’ integral 0.5° and for Wong‐Gore kernel 110–120°, respectively and 10 km for both the Bjerhammar sphere depth and attenuation factor. The final gravimetric geoid in South Korea ranges from 20–31 m with a precision of 5.45 cm overall compared to 1096 GPS/levelling data. In addition, the South Korean hybrid geoid produces 3.46 cm and 3.92 cm for degrees of fitness and precision, respectively and a better statistic of 2.37 cm for plain and urban areas was achieved. The gravimetric and hybrid geoids are expected to improve further when the refined land gravity data are included in the near future.     

A Local Least-Squares Modification of Stokes’ Formula

The combination of Stokes formula and an Earth Gravity Model (EGM) for geoid determination has become a standard procedure. However, the way of modifying Stokes formula vary from author to author, and numerous methods of modification exist. Most methods are deterministic, with the primary goal of reducing the truncation bias committed by limiting the area of Stokes integration around the computation point, but there are also some stochastic methods with the explicit goal to reduce the global mean square error of the geoid height estimator stemming from the truncation bias as well as the random errors of the EGM and the gravity data. The latter estimators are thus, at least from a theoretical point of view, optimal in a global mean sense, but in a local sense they may be far from optimality.Here we take advantage of the error variance-covariance matrices of the EGM and the terrestrial gravity data to derive the modification parameters of Stokes kernel in a local least-squares sense. The solution is given for the unbiased type of modification of Stokes formula of Sjöberg (1991).     

用GRACE卫星跟踪数据反演地球重力场

利用141天GRACE卫星观测资料,包括K波段、星载加速度和卫星轨道数据,反演了80阶地球重力场模型IGGGRACE01S,该模型在半波长为500km的空间分辨率上,确定大地水准面的精度约为0012m,中长波(<80阶)精度优于重力卫星发射以前研制的重力场模型. 与EIGEN_GRACE02S、EIGEN_CHAMP03S和EGM96模型的位系数相比,该模型系数最接近于EIGEN_GRACE02S,与另两个模型差异较大. 比较几种模型确定的全球重力异常和大地水准面起伏,结果发现IGGGRACE01S与EIGEN_GRACE02S模型的计算结果比较接近,与EGM96模型结果差异较大,差别较大地区主要在南极等地区. 对于中国大陆,比较IGGGRACE01S模型（前72阶）计算的重力异常和NIMA重力异常数据（25°×25°网格）,两者之间的标准偏差为48mGal.     

Local geoid determination based on airborne gravity data

A mathematical model used for determination of a local geoid model by combining airborne gravity disturbances and the Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM08) is shortly reviewed. The precision of the estimated local geoid model of Taiwan is tested by its comparison with the “real” geoid at Global Satellite Navigation Systems (GNSS)/levelling points. The same comparison at GNSS/levelling points is done for the geoid evaluated only by using EGM08. Conclusions concerning a rate of improvement of the “global” geoid from EGM08 using the “local” geoid from airborne gravity data are presented.