An analysis of vertical deflections derived from high-degree spherical harmonic models

The theoretical differences between the Helmert deflection of the vertical and that computed from a truncated spherical harmonic series of the gravity field, aside from the limited spectral content in the latter, include the curvature of the normal plumb line, the permanent tidal effect, and datum origin and orientation offsets. A numerical comparison between deflections derived from spherical harmonic model EGM96 and astronomic deflections in the conterminous United States (CONUS) shows that correcting these systematic effects reduces the mean differences in some areas. Overall, the mean difference in CONUS is reduced from −0.219 arcsec to −0.058 arcsec for the south–north deflection, and from +0.016 arcsec to +0.004 arcsec for the west–east deflection. Further analysis of the root-mean-square differences indicates that the high-degree spectrum of the EGM96 model has significantly less power than implied by the deflection data. Received: 9 December 1997 / Accepted: 21 August 1998     

Astronomical-topographic levelling using high-precision astrogeodetic vertical deflections and digital terrain model data

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, a technological change took place in geodetic astronomy by the development of Digital Zenith Camera Systems (DZCS). Such instruments provide vertical deflection data at an angular accuracy level of 0.̋1 and better. Recently, DZCS have been employed for the collection of dense sets of astrogeodetic vertical deflection data in several test areas in Germany with high-resolution digital terrain model (DTM) data (10–50 m resolution) available. These considerable advancements motivate a new analysis of the method of astronomical-topographic levelling, which uses DTM data for the interpolation between the astrogeodetic stations. We present and analyse a least-squares collocation technique that uses DTM data for the accurate interpolation of vertical deflection data. The combination of both data sets allows a precise determination of the gravity field along profiles, even in regions with a rugged topography. The accuracy of the method is studied with particular attention on the density of astrogeodetic stations. The error propagation rule of astronomical levelling is empirically derived. It accounts for the signal omission that increases with the station spacing. In a test area located in the German Alps, the method was successfully applied to the determination of a quasigeoid profile of 23 km length. For a station spacing from a few 100 m to about 2 km, the accuracy of the quasigeoid was found to be about 1–2 mm, which corresponds to a relative accuracy of about 0.05−0.1 ppm. Application examples are given, such as the local and regional validation of gravity field models computed from gravimetric data and the economic gravity field determination in geodetically less covered regions.     

Formation of surface spherical harmonic normal matrices and application to high-degree geopotential modeling

 The structure of normal matrices occurring in the problem of weighted least-squares spherical harmonic analysis of measurements scattered on a sphere with random noises is investigated. Efficient algorithms for the formation of the normal matrices are derived using fundamental relations inherent to the products of two surface spherical harmonic functions. The whole elements of a normal matrix complete to spherical harmonic degree L are recursively obtained from its first row or first column extended to degree 2L with only O(L ⁴) computational operations. Applications of the algorithms to the formation of surface normal matrices from geoid undulations and surface gravity anomalies are discussed in connection with the high-degree geopotential modeling. Received: 22 March 1999 / Accepted: 23 December 1999     

The spherical horizontal and spherical vertical boundary value problem – vertical deflections and geoidal undulations – the completed Meissl diagram

 In a comparison of the solution of the spherical horizontal and vertical boundary value problems of physical geodesy it is aimed to construct downward continuation operators for vertical deflections (surface gradient of the incremental gravitational potential) and for gravity disturbances (vertical derivative of the incremental gravitational potential) from points on the Earth's topographic surface or of the three-dimensional (3-D) Euclidean space nearby down to the international reference sphere (IRS). First the horizontal and vertical components of the gravity vector, namely spherical vertical deflections and spherical gravity disturbances, are set up. Second, the horizontal and vertical boundary value problem in spherical gravity and geometry space is considered. The incremental gravity vector is represented in terms of vector spherical harmonics. The solution of horizontal spherical boundary problem in terms of the horizontal vector-valued Green function converts vertical deflections given on the IRS to the incremental gravitational potential external in the 3-D Euclidean space. The horizontal Green functions specialized to evaluation and source points on the IRS coincide with the Stokes kernel for vertical deflections. Third, the vertical spherical boundary value problem is solved in terms of the vertical scalar-valued Green function. Fourth, the operators for upward continuation of vertical deflections given on the IRS to vertical deflections in its external 3-D Euclidean space are constructed. Fifth, the operators for upward continuation of incremental gravity given on the IRS to incremental gravity to the external 3-D Euclidean space are generated. Finally, Meissl-type diagrams for upward continuation and regularized downward continuation of horizontal and vertical gravity data, namely vertical deflection and incremental gravity, are produced. Received: 10 May 2000 / Accepted: 26 February 2001     

Estimation of the longitude bias of the NWL9D coordinate system from deflections of the vertical,satellite altimetry and high degree spherical harmonic expansions

Journal of Geodesy - TheNWL9D (orNSWC9Z2) coordinate system is known to have thex andy coordinates of its origin approximately1 or2 meters from the Earth’s gravity center, but its zero...     

Determination of deflections of the vertical using a combination of spherical harmonics and gravimetric data for the area of Greece

The determination of gravimetric deflections of the vertical for the area of Greece is attempted by combining a spherical hamonics model and gravity nomalies using the method of least squares collocation. The components of deflections of the vertical are estimated on a grid with spacing 15′ in latitude and 20′ in longitude covering only the continental area of Greece, where a sufficient number of point gravity anomalies is available. In order to test the accuracy of the determination, gravimetric deflections of the vertical are computed at stations where astrogeodetic data are available. The results show that in a large region of rugged topography and irregular potential field, the prediction is possible with a standard deviation of 18% ... 28% of the root mean square variation of the observations, without taking into account the topography. Furthermore, the estimation of some systematic differences between observed and computed deflections of the vertical is attempted.     

卫星测高的垂线偏差格网化方法研究

针对卫星测高技术反演海洋重力场需要解算格网垂线偏差,不同的格网化方法影响垂线偏差的解算精度与空间分辨率的问题,结合Shepard格网化方法与沿轨最小二乘方法的优势提出了一种新的格网化方法,即基于Shepard 权函数的沿轨最小二乘方法.采用CryoSat-2卫星约7年的数据,选取中国黄海和南海及其周边海域作为研究区域,分别利用基于交叉点的Shepard法、距离加权沿轨最小二乘法和基于Shepard权函数的沿轨最小二乘法解算1'×1'格网的垂线偏差.将不同方法得到的结果与EGM2008模型的垂线偏差进行比较,利用本文提出的方法解算的1'×1'格网垂线偏差精度最高.研究表明,在基于Shepard权函数的沿轨最小二乘方法在垂线偏差格网化中是可靠的,且该方法可获得高精度结果.     

球谐分析及合成并行计算

本文介绍了球谐合成和分析问题的数值计算原理,研究分析了其内在的并行性,提出了区域划分和聚合通信的并行计算策略。基于傅立叶变换技术,应用MPI(消息传递接口)并行编程模式,实现了球谐分析及合成计算的并行化。实验结果表明,较之串行实现,并行实现大大缩短了计算时间,获得了近似线形加速比,取得很高的并行效率。     

High degree spherical harmonic expansion of gravity data

A spherical harmonic expansion of the gravity field up to degree and order 200 was carried out. Free air anomaly data over Canada (1⁰×1⁰ block averages) with a range of 211.1 mgal were used for testing. A low degree expansion (N=30) produced a map with a range of 63.6 mgal with contour patterns that could hardly be correlated with the original hand contoured map. A high degree expansion (N=200) on the other hand resulted in a map with a range of 199.8 mgal which quite faithfully reproduced the original including its local variations. Test computations verify that by monitoring the RMS values and the range of the expansion it is possible to arrive at an optimum degree of expansion for a given data set. It was also verified by the computations, that, since the computed expansions essentially have a zero value outside the domain of the input, it is possible to combine the results of separate non-overlapping expansions. Contribution of the Earth Physics Branch No. 900. Presented at the 1977 Spring Meeting, AGU, May 30–June 3, Washington, D.C.     

Integral transformations of deflections of the vertical onto satellite-to-satellite tracking and gradiometric data

With the advent of geodetic satellite missions mapping almost globally the Earth’s gravitational field, new methods and theoretical approaches have been developed and investigated to fully exploit the potential of their new observables. Besides estimating values of numerical coefficients in harmonic series of the gravitational potential, new applications emerged such as data validation and combination. In this contribution, new integral transformations are presented which transform principal components of the terrestrial deflection of the vertical onto disturbing satellite-to-satellite tracking and gradiometric data at altitude. Using spherical approximation, necessary integral kernel functions are derived in both spectral and closed forms. The behaviour of isotropic kernel functions is studied and the new integral transformations are tested in a closed-loop simulation using synthetic terrestrial and satellite data synthesized from a global gravitational model. New integral transformations can be used for data validation and combination purposes.     

Ultra-high degree spherical harmonic analysis and synthesis using extended-range arithmetic

We present software for spherical harmonic analysis (SHA) and spherical harmonic synthesis (SHS), which can be used for essentially arbitrary degrees and all co-latitudes in the interval (0°, 180°). The routines use extended-range floating-point arithmetic, in particular for the computation of the associated Legendre functions. The price to be paid is an increased computation time; for degree 3,000, the extended-range arithmetic SHS program takes 49 times longer than its standard arithmetic counterpart. The extended-range SHS and SHA routines allow us to test existing routines for SHA and SHS. A comparison with the publicly available SHS routine GEOGFG18 by Wenzel and HARMONIC SYNTH by Holmes and Pavlis confirms what is known about the stability of these programs. GEOGFG18 gives errors <1 mm for latitudes [-89°57.5′, 89°57.5′] and maximum degree 1,800. Higher degrees significantly limit the range of acceptable latitudes for a given accuracy. HARMONIC SYNTH gives good results up to degree 2,700 for almost the whole latitude range. The errors increase towards the North pole and exceed 1 mm at latitude 82° for degree 2,700. For a maximum degree 3,000, HARMONIC SYNTH produces errors exceeding 1 mm at latitudes of about 60°, whereas GEOGFG18 is limited to latitudes below 45°. Further extending the latitudinal band towards the poles may produce errors of several metres for both programs. A SHA of a uniform random signal on the sphere shows significant errors beyond degree 1,700 for the SHA program SHA by Heck and Seitz.     

A method for vertical adjustment of digital aerial photogrammetry data by using a high-quality digital terrain model

The accuracy of vertical position information can be degraded by various sources of error in digital aerial photogrammetry (DAP) based point clouds. To address this issue, we propose a relatively straightforward method for automated correction of such point clouds. This method can be used in conjunction with any 3D reconstruction method in which a point cloud is generated from a pair of aerial images. The crux of the method involves separately co-registering each DAP point cloud (formed by the overlap of two or more images) to a common airborne laser scanning (ALS) based digital terrain model. The proposed method has the following essential steps: (1) Ground surface patches are identified in the normalized DAP point clouds by selecting areas in which standard deviation of vertical height is low, (2) height differences between the DAP and ALS point clouds are calculated at these patches, and (3) a correction surface is interpolated from these height differences and is then used to rectify the entire DAP point cloud. The performance of the proposed method is verified using plot data (n = 250) from a forested study area in Eastern Finland. We observed that DAP data from the area corrected using our proposed method resulted in significant increases in prediction accuracy of key forest variables. Specifically, the root mean squared error (RMSE) values for dominant height predictions decreased by up to 23.2%, while the associated model R² values increased by 16.9%. As for stem volume, RMSEs dropped by 20.6%, while the model R² improved by 14.6%, respectively. Hence, prediction accuracies were almost as good as with ALS data. The results suggest that vertically misaligned DAP data, if rectified using an algorithm such as the one presented here, could deliver near ALS data quality at a fraction of the cost.     

Evaluation of deflections of the vertical using topographic-isostatic and astrogeodetic data for the area of Greece

The evaluation of deflections of the vertical for the area of Greece is attempted using a combination of topographic and astrogeodetic data. Tests carried out in the area bounded by 35°≤ϕ≤42°, 19°≤λ≤27° indicate that an accuracy of ±3″.3 can be obtained in this area for the meridian and prime vertical deflection components when high resolution topographic data in the immediate vicinity of computation points are used, combined with high degree spherical harmonic expansions of the geopotential and isostatic reduction potential. This accuracy is about 25% better than the corresponding topographic-Moho deflection components which are evaluated using topographic and Moho data up to 120 km around each station, without any combination with the spherical harmonic expansion of the geopotential or isostatic reduction potential. The accuracy in both cases is increased to about 2″.6 when the astrogeodetic data available in the area mentioned above are used for the prediction of remaining values. Furthermore the estimation of datum-shift parameters is attempted using least squares collocation.     

Determination of geoidal heights and deflections of the vertical for the hellenic area using heterogeneous data

Mean gravity anomalies, deflections of the vertical, and a geopotential model complete to degree and order180 are combined in order to determine geoidal heights in the area bounded by [34°≦ϕ≤42°, 18°≦λ≦28°]. Moreover, employing point gravity anomalies simultaneously with the above data, an attempt is made to predict deflections of the vertical in the same area. The method used in the computations is least squares collocation. Using empirical covariance functions for the data, the suitable errors for the different sources of observations, and the optimum cap radius around each point of evaluation, an accuracy better than±0.60m for geoidal heights and±1″.5 for deflections of the vertical is obtained taking into account existing systematic effects. This accuracy refers to the comparison between observed and predicted values.     

Rotational evaluation of a long-period spherical harmonic ocean tide model

By exchanging angular momentum with the solid earth, tidal variations in ocean currents and sea level cause the rotation of the solid earth to change. Observations of earth rotation variations can therefore be used to evaluate ocean tide models. The rotational predictions of a spherical harmonic ocean tide model that is not constrained by any type of data are compared here to the predictions of numerical ocean tide models and to earth rotation observations from which atmospheric and non-tidal oceanic effects have been removed. The spherical harmonic ocean tide model is shown to account for the observed variations at the fortnightly tidal period in polar motion excitation but not in length-of-day. Overall, its long-period polar motion excitation predictions fit the observed tidal signals better than do the predictions of the numerical ocean tide models studied here. It may be possible to improve its agreement with length-of-day observations by tuning certain model parameters, as was done to obtain the close agreement reported here between the modeled and observed polar motion excitation; alternatively, the discrepancy in length-of-day may point to the need to revise current models of mantle anelasticity and/or models of the oceanic response to atmospheric pressure variations.     

Combining EGM2008 and SRTM/DTM2006.0 residual terrain model data to improve quasigeoid computations in mountainous areas devoid of gravity data

A global geopotential model, like EGM2008, is not capable of representing the high-frequency components of Earth’s gravity field. This is known as the omission error. In mountainous terrain, omission errors in EGM2008, even when expanded to degree 2,190, may reach amplitudes of 10 cm and more for height anomalies. The present paper proposes the utilisation of high-resolution residual terrain model (RTM) data for computing estimates of the omission error in rugged terrain. RTM elevations may be constructed as the difference between the SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) elevation model and the DTM2006.0 spherical harmonic topographic expansion. Numerical tests, carried out in the German Alps with a precise gravimetric quasigeoid model (GCG05) and GPS/levelling data as references, demonstrate that RTM-based omission error estimates improve EGM2008 height anomaly differences by 10 cm in many cases. The comparisons of EGM2008-only height anomalies and the GCG05 model showed 3.7 cm standard deviation after a bias-fit. Applying RTM omission error estimates to EGM2008 reduces the standard deviation to 1.9 cm which equates to a significant improvement rate of 47%. Using GPS/levelling data strongly corroborates these findings with an improvement rate of 49%. The proposed RTM approach may be of practical value to improve quasigeoid determination in mountainous areas without sufficient regional gravity data coverage, e.g., in parts of Asia, South America or Africa. As a further application, RTM omission error estimates will allow refined validation of global gravity field models like EGM2008 from GPS/levelling data.     

Error analysis of deflections of the vertical and undulations from the accuracies of gravity anomalies

Equations, suitable for machine evaluation, are derived for computing the coefficients to be multiplied by each mean gravity anomaly, world-wide, to obtain the deflections of the vertical and undulations at any given point. These coefficients together with the accuracies of the anomalies are used to compute the standard of the deflections and undulations. Sample computations done with some assumed data gave average world-wide standard errors of 0".6 for the meridian and prime vertical deflections and 4.5 m for the undulations.     

SGG重力场球谐系数正则解的误差估计方法

重力梯度为重力位的二阶导数,可以通过星载梯度仪进行观测。重力场球谐函数系数可以通过正则化方法由重力梯度算出。本文在对正则化方法分析的基础上提出了估计球谐函数系数正则解误差的方法,为我国今后发射重力梯度卫星提供技术准备。