Ramazan Alpay Abbak

A precise gravimetric geoid model in a mountainous area with scarce gravity data : a case study in central Turkey

In mountainous regions with scarce gravity data, gravimetric geoid determination is a difficult task that needs special attention to obtain reliable results satisfying the demands, e.g., of engineering applications. The present study investigates a procedure for combining a suitable global geopotential model and available terrestrial data in order to obtain a precise regional geoid model for Konya Closed Basin (KCB). The KCB is located in the central part of Turkey, where a very limited amount of terrestrial gravity data is available. Various data sources, such as the Turkish digital elevation model with 3 ″ × 3″ resolution, a recently published satellite-only global geopotential model from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellite (GRACE) and the ground gravity observations, are combined in the least-squares sense by the modified Stokes’ formula. The new gravimetric geoid model is compared with Global Positioning System (GPS)/levelling at the control points, resulting in the Root Mean Square Error (RMS) differences of ±6.4 cm and 1.7 ppm in the absolute and relative senses, respectively. This regional geoid model appears to be more accurate than the Earth Gravitational Model 2008, which is the best global model over the target area, with the RMS differences of ±8.6 cm and 1.8 ppm in the absolute and relative senses, respectively. These results show that the accuracy of a regional gravimetric model can be augmented by the combination of a global geopotential model and local terrestrial data in mountainous areas even though the quality and resolution of the primary terrestrial data are not satisfactory to the geoid modelling procedure.

On global and regional spectral evaluation of global geopotential models

Spectral evaluation of global geopotential models (GGMs) is necessary to recognize the behaviour of gravity signal and its error recorded in spherical harmonic coefficients and associated standard deviations. Results put forward in this wise explain the whole contribution of gravity data in different kinds that represent various sections of the gravity spectrum. This method is more informative than accuracy assessment methods, which use external data such as GPS-levelling. Comparative spectral evaluation for more than one model can be performed both in global and local sense using many spectral tools. The number of GGMs has grown with the increasing number of data collected by the dedicated satellite gravity missions, CHAMP, GRACE and GOCE. This fact makes it necessary to measure the differences between models and to monitor the improvements in the gravity field recovery. In this paper, some of the satellite-only and combined models are examined in different scales, globally and regionally, in order to observe the advances in the modelling of GGMs and their strengths at various expansion degrees for geodetic and geophysical applications. The validation of the published errors of model coefficients is a part of this evaluation. All spectral tools explicitly reveal the superiority of the GRACE-based models when compared against the models that comprise the conventional satellite tracking data. The disagreement between models is large in local/regional areas if data sets are different, as seen from the example of the Turkish territory.

A software package for computing a regional gravimetric geoid model by the KTH method

Nowadays, the geodetic community has aimed to determine 1-cm accuracy gravimetric geoid model, which satisfies the demands of most engineering applications. However, the gravimetric geoid determination is a difficult mission which needs an exclusive attention to obtain reliable results for this purpose. Today, Least-Squares Modification of Stokes (LSMS) formula which is so-called the KTH method (Swedish Royal Institute of Technology) has been performed in the regional geoid studies. Based upon the earlier investigations, the KTH method provides more reasonable results than the Remove Compute Restore technique, especially in roughly terrain with sparse terrestrial gravity data. Nevertheless, a compact and practical software package is now not available for users and researchers in geosciences. Thus, in this paper, a scientific software called “LSMSSOFT” is developed and presented by adding a new algorithm which speeds up the evaluation of Stokes’ integral. Afterwards, the LSMSSOFT is applied to a case study for the construction of a geoid model over the Auvergne test area in France. Consequently, the algorithm treated in the software and its results imply that the LSMSSOFT is an alternative software package for modelling the gravimetric geoid by the KTH method.

Effect of ASTER DEM on the prediction of mean gravity anomalies: a case study over the Auvergne test region

A precise gravimetric geoid determination requires height information and terrestrial gravity data with high accuracy and resolution. The height data is utilized for predicting mean free-air gravity anomalies as well as computing the topographic, atmospheric and downward continuation effects which are fundamental components of any geoid model. Nowadays the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) obtained from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) has been widely used when an accurate regional DEM does not exist. In addition the DEM generated from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) was newly released by researchers from Japan and United States. In this study the effect of ASTER DEM on the estimating mean free-air gravity anomalies in geoid determination were investigated in the Auvergne test area where one of its regions exhibits one of the most rugged topography over the world. The numerical results show that ASTER DEM gives worse statistics than SRTM DEM with respect to the accuracy of the height. Using ASTER DEM introduces discrepancies (compared to SRTM DEM) in the range of

Comparison between simple and complete Bouguer approaches in interpolation of mean gravity anomalies

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COMPARISON OF ASTER AND SRTM DIGITAL ELEVATION MODELS AT ONE-ARC-SECOND RESOLUTION OVER TURKEY

-4 to 10 mGal in the interpolation of free-air gravity anomalies. It is also proven that the geoid differences due to the use of ASTER DEM are a few centimeters, which remain below the accuracy level of the external GPS-levelling data.

title

It is investigated to what extent EGM96 affects the accuracy of digital elevation model (DEM) produced from the shuttle radar topography mission (SRTM). Global and regional analysis of EGM96 compared with EGM2008 indicate that locally there are large differences distorting to the accuracy level of SRTM DEM. In the absolute sense, the overall geoid differences throughout arc-degree tiles reach −5 m in the northeast and 2–3 m in the southern parts of Turkey. A numerical investigation over the test profiles of 200–700 km length running at various directions proves that a possible vertical datum change from EGM96 to EGM2008 yields systematically more accurate height information with an improvement of up to 2.5 m. A GPS-levelling traverse of about 900 km length points out some key patterns of this recovery. Consequently, a correction for the present version of SRTM DEM should be considered in critical implementations of Earth sciences like geoid or water flow modelling, especially for areas where EGM96 shows weak performance.

SRTM1 ve ASTER Sayısal Yükseklik Modellerinin Gravimetrik Jeoit Belirlemeye Katkısı

The determination of the geoid, which is a real shape of the Earth, with an accuracy of 1 cm is one of the most important aim of the today’s geodetic community. The gravimetric geoid modeling is the most preferred technique in order to reach to this target. Nevertheless, the gravity values measured on the physical surface of the Earth can not be directly included to this process. First of all, surface gravity values should be reduced to gravity anomalies and, during this step they should not lose their topographic features of the Earths surface where the data is collected. On the other hand, in order to generate gravity anomalies on a regular grid, it is expected that dependency of gravity anomalies (to be used asreference data in interpolation) to local topography should be minimum. While free-air anomalies are the basic data source for determining the geoid, Bouguer anomalies describing the smoother Earth’s shape, are convenient to the interpolation of gravity anomalies. Therefore, the dependence of Bouguer gravity anomalies, which is a main data in the interpolation procedure, should be reduced to minimum. Although the simple Bouguer anomalies are preferred in practice, it is known that they contain more or less the negative effects of irregular topography. In this study, the differences between simple and complete Bouguer anomalies are presented in a test area. It is seen that the differences between free-air anomalies derived from both approximations are numerically increased up to16 mGal, correlated with the topography. This result indicates that complete Bouguer anomalies should be used in interpolation process in regions posing irregular topography, such as Turkey.