Abstract
A model of the gravity gradient tensor at aircraft altitude is developed from the combination of ground gravity anomaly data and a digital elevation model. The gravity data are processed according to various operational solutions to the boundary-value problem (numerical integration of Stokes’ integral, radial-basis splines, and least-squares collocation). The terrain elevation data are used to reduce free-air anomalies to the geoid and to compute a corresponding indirect effect on the gradients at altitude. We compare the various modeled gradients to airborne gradiometric data and find differences of the order of 10–20 E (SD) for all gradient tensor elements. Our analysis of these differences leads to a conclusion that their source may be primarily measurement error in these particular gradient data. We have thus demonstrated the procedures and the utility of combining ground gravity and elevation data to validate airborne gradiometer systems.
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Zhu, L., Jekeli, C. Gravity gradient modeling using gravity and DEM. J Geod 83, 557–567 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-008-0273-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-008-0273-2