Topographic effects by the Stokes–Helmert method of geoid and quasi-geoid determinations

The topographic potential and the direct topographic effect on the geoid are presented as surface integrals, and the direct gravity effect is derived as a rigorous surface integral on the unit sphere. By Taylor-expanding the integrals at sea level with respect to topographic elevation (H) the power series of the effects is derived to arbitrary orders. This study is primarily limited to terms of order H ². The limitations of the various effects in the frequently used planar approximations are demonstrated. In contrast, it is shown that the spherical approximation to power H ² leads to a combined topographic effect on the geoid (direct plus indirect effect) proportional to H˜² (where terms of degrees 0 and 1 are missing) of the order of several metres, while the combined topographic effect on the height anomaly vanishes, implying that current frequent efforts to determine the direct effect to this order are not needed. The last result is in total agreement with Bjerhammar's method in physical geodesy. It is shown that the most frequently applied remove–restore technique of topographic masses in the application of Stokes' formula suffers from significant errors both in the terrain correction C (representing the sum of the direct topographic effect on gravity anomaly and the effect of continuing the anomaly to sea level) and in the term t (mainly representing the indirect effect on the geoidal or quasi-geoidal height). Received: 18 August 1998 / Accepted: 4 October 1999     

A solution to the downward continuation effect on the geoid determined by Stokes' formula

 The analytical continuation of the surface gravity anomaly to sea level is a necessary correction in the application of Stokes' formula for geoid estimation. This process is frequently performed by the inversion of Poisson's integral formula for a sphere. Unfortunately, this integral equation corresponds to an improperly posed problem, and the solution is both numerically unstable, unless it is well smoothed, and tedious to compute. A solution that avoids the intermediate step of downward continuation of the gravity anomaly is presented. Instead the effect on the geoid as provided by Stokes' formula is studied directly. The practical solution is partly presented in terms of a truncated Taylor series and partly as a truncated series of spherical harmonics. Some simple numerical estimates show that the solution mostly meets the requests of a 1-cm geoid model, but the truncation error of the far zone must be studied more precisely for high altitudes of the computation point. In addition, it should be emphasized that the derived solution is more computer efficient than the detour by Poisson's integral. Received: 6 February 2002 / Accepted: 18 November 2002 Acknowledgements. Jonas ?gren carried out the numerical calculations and gave some critical and constructive remarks on a draft version of the paper. This support is cordially acknowledged. Also, the thorough work performed by one unknown reviewer is very much appreciated.     

The exterior Airy/Heiskanen topographic–isostatic gravity potential, anomaly and the effect of analytical continuation in Stokes' formula

This study deals with the external type of topographic–isostatic potential and gravity anomaly and its vertical derivatives, derived from the Airy/Heiskanen model for isostatic compensation. From the first and the second radial derivatives of the gravity anomaly the effect on the geoid is estimated for the downward continuation of gravity to sea level in the application of Stokes' formula. The major and regional effect is shown to be of order H ³ of the topography, and it is estimated to be negligible at sea level and modest for most mountains, but of the order of several metres for the highest and most extended mountain belts. Another, global, effect is of order H but much less significant Received: 3 October 1997 / Accepted: 30 June 1998     

Terrain corrections to power 3 in gravimetric geoid determination

In precise geoid determination by Stokes formula, direct and primary and secondary indirect terrain effects are applied for removing and restoring the terrain masses. We use Helmert's second condensation method to derive the sum of these effects, together called the total terrain effect for geoid. We develop the total terrain effect to third power of elevation H in the original Stokes formula, Earth gravity model and modified Stokes formula. It is shown that the original Stokes formula, Earth gravity model and modified Stokes formula all theoretically experience different total terrain effects. Numerical results indicate that the total terrain effect is very significant for moderate topographies and mountainous regions. Absolute global mean values of 5–10 cm can be reached for harmonic expansions of the terrain to degree and order 360. In another experiment, we conclude that the most important part of the total terrain effect is the contribution from the second power of H, while the contribution from the third power term is within 9 cm. Received: 2 September 1996 / Accepted: 4 August 1997     

Convergence and optimal truncation of binomial expansions used in isostatic compensations and terrain corrections

 A binomial expansion is a powerful tool in geodetic research. It is often used in terrain correction and isostatic compensation. The behaviour, convergence and truncation of the binomial expansion are investigated. The relation of the topographic height H (or the compensation depth), spherical harmonic degree n and the binomial series term m is discussed using theoretical and numerical results. According to the relation, a truncation number M is determined for obtaining an accuracy of 1%, i.e. it can be found how many terms (or power numbers of the topography) should be used in practical calculations. Received: 24 February 1999 / Accepted: 28 June 2000     

Precise geoid determination over Sweden using the Stokes–Helmert method and improved topographic corrections

 Four different implementations of Stokes' formula are employed for the estimation of geoid heights over Sweden: the Vincent and Marsh (1974) model with the high-degree reference gravity field but no kernel modifications; modified Wong and Gore (1969) and Molodenskii et al. (1962) models, which use a high-degree reference gravity field and modification of Stokes' kernel; and a least-squares (LS) spectral weighting proposed by Sj?berg (1991). Classical topographic correction formulae are improved to consider long-wavelength contributions. The effect of a Bouguer shell is also included in the formulae, which is neglected in classical formulae due to planar approximation. The gravimetric geoid is compared with global positioning system (GPS)-levelling-derived geoid heights at 23 Swedish Permanent GPS Network SWEPOS stations distributed over Sweden. The LS method is in best agreement, with a 10.1-cm mean and ±5.5-cm standard deviation in the differences between gravimetric and GPS geoid heights. The gravimetric geoid was also fitted to the GPS-levelling-derived geoid using a four-parameter transformation model. The results after fitting also show the best consistency for the LS method, with the standard deviation of differences reduced to ±1.1 cm. For comparison, the NKG96 geoid yields a 17-cm mean and ±8-cm standard deviation of agreement with the same SWEPOS stations. After four-parameter fitting to the GPS stations, the standard deviation reduces to ±6.1 cm for the NKG96 geoid. It is concluded that the new corrections in this study improve the accuracy of the geoid. The final geoid heights range from 17.22 to 43.62 m with a mean value of 29.01 m. The standard errors of the computed geoid heights, through a simple error propagation of standard errors of mean anomalies, are also computed. They range from ±7.02 to ±13.05 cm. The global root-mean-square error of the LS model is the other estimation of the accuracy of the final geoid, and is computed to be ±28.6 cm. Received: 15 September 1999 / Accepted: 6 November 2000     

A new strategy for the atmospheric gravity effect in gravimetric geoid determination

Prior to Stokes integration, the gravitational effect of atmospheric masses must be removed from the gravity anomaly g. One theory for the atmospheric gravity effect on the geoid is the well-known International Association of Geodesy approach in connection with Stokes integral formula. Another strategy is the use of a spherical harmonic representation of the topography, i.e. the use of a global topography computed from a set of spherical harmonics. The latter strategy is improved to account for local information. A new formula is derived by combining the local contribution of the atmospheric effect computed from a detailed digital terrain model and the global contribution computed from a spherical harmonic model of the topography. The new formula is tested over Iran and the results are compared with corresponding results from the old formula which only uses the global information. The results show significant differences. The differences between the two formulas reach 17 cm in a test area in Iran.     

The CARIB97 high-resolution geoid height model for the Caribbean Sea

A 2×2 arc-minute resolution geoid model, CARIB97, has been computed covering the Caribbean Sea. The geoid undulations refer to the GRS-80 ellipsoid, centered at the ITRF94 (1996.0) origin. The geoid level is defined by adopting the gravity potential on the geoid as W ₀=62 636 856.88 m²/s² and a gravity-mass constant of GM=3.986 004 418×10¹⁴ m³/s². The geoid model was computed by applying high-frequency corrections to the Earth Gravity Model 1996 global geopotential model in a remove-compute-restore procedure. The permanent tide system of CARIB97 is non-tidal. Comparison of CARIB97 geoid heights to 31 GPS/tidal (ITRF94/local) benchmarks shows an average offset (h–H–N) of 51 cm, with an Root Mean Square (RMS) of 62 cm about the average. This represents an improvement over the use of a global geoid model for the region. However, because the measured orthometric heights (H) refer to many differing tidal datums, these comparisons are biased by localized permanent ocean dynamic topography (PODT). Therefore, we interpret the 51 cm as partially an estimate of the average PODT in the vicinity of the 31 island benchmarks. On an island-by-island basis, CARIB97 now offers the ability to analyze local datum problems which were previously unrecognized due to a lack of high-resolution geoid information in the area. Received: 2 January 1998 / Accepted: 18 August 1998     

The analytical continuation bias in geoid determination using potential coefficients and terrestrial gravity data

One important application of an Earth Gravity Model (EGM) is to determine the geoid. Since an EGM is represented by an external-type series of spherical harmonics, a biased geoid model is obtained when the EGM is applied inside the masses in continental regions. In order to convert the downward-continued height anomaly to the corresponding geoid undulation, a correction has to be applied for the analytical continuation bias of the geoid height. This technique is here called the geoid bias method. A correction for the geoid bias can also be utilised when an EGM is combined with terrestrial gravity data, using the combined approach to topographic corrections. The geoid bias can be computed either by a strict integral formula, or by means of one or more terms in a binomial expansion. The accuracy of the lowest binomial terms is studied numerically. It is concluded that the first term (of power H²) can be used with high accuracy up to degree 360 everywhere on Earth. If very high mountains are disregarded, then the use of the H² term can be extended up to maximum degrees as high as 1800. It is also shown that the geoid bias method is practically equal to the technique applied by Rapp, which utilises the quasigeoid-to-geoid separation. Another objective is to carefully consider how the combined approach to topographic corrections should be interpreted. This includes investigations of how the above-mentioned H² term should be computed, as well as how it can be improved by a correction for the residual geoid bias. It is concluded that the computation of the combined topographic effect is efficient in the case that the residual geoid bias can be neglected, since the computation of the latter is very time consuming. It is nevertheless important to be able to compute the residual bias for individual stations. For reasonable maximum degrees, this can be used to check the quality of the H² approximation in different situations.Acknowledgement The author would like to thank Prof. L.E. Sjöberg for several ideas and for reading two draft versions of the paper. His support and constructive remarks have improved its quality considerably. The valuable suggestions from three unknown reviewers are also appreciated.     

Downward continuation of the free-air gravity anomalies to the ellipsoid using the gradient solution and terrain correction—An attempt of global numerical computations

The formulas for the determination of the coefficients of the spherical harmonic expansion of the disturbing potential of the earth are defined for data given on a sphere. In order to determine the spherical harmonic coefficients, the gravity anomalies have to be analytically downward continued from the earth's surface to a sphere—at least to the ellipsoid. The goal of this paper is to continue the gravity anomalies from the earth's surface downward to the ellipsoid using recent elevation models. The basic method for the downward continuation is the gradient solution (theg ₁ term). The terrain correction has also been computed because of the role it can play as a correction term when calculating harmonic coefficients from surface gravity data. Theg ₁ term and the terrain correction were expanded into the spherical harmonics up to180 ^th order. The corrections (theg ₁ term and the terrain correction) have the order of about 2% of theRMS value of degree variance of the disturbing potential per degree. The influences of theg ₁ term and the terrain correction on the geoid take the order of 1 meter (RMS value of corrections of the geoid undulation) and on the deflections of the vertical is of the order 0.1″ (RMS value of correction of the deflections of the vertical).     

A method to validate gravimetric-geoid computation software based on Stokes's integral formula

A method is presented with which to verify that the computer software used to compute a gravimetric geoid is capable of producing the correct results, assuming accurate input data. The Stokes, gravimetric terrain correction and indirect effect formulae are integrated analytically after applying a transformation to surface spherical coordinates centred on each computation point. These analytical results can be compared with those from geoid computation software using constant gravity data in order to verify its integrity. Results of tests conducted with geoid computation software are presented which illustrate the need for integration weighting factors, especially for those compartments close to the computation point. Received: 6 February 1996 / Accepted: 19 April 1997     

The Effects of Stokes’s Formula for an Ellipsoidal Layering of the Earth’s Atmosphere

The application of Stokes’s formula to determine the geoid height requires that topographic and atmospheric masses be mathematically removed prior to Stokes integration. This corresponds to the applications of the direct topographic and atmospheric effects. For a proper geoid determination, the external masses must then be restored, yielding the indirect effects. Assuming an ellipsoidal layering of the atmosphere with 15% increase in its density towards the poles, the direct atmospheric effect on the geoid height is estimated to be −5.51 m plus a second-degree zonal harmonic term with an amplitude of 1.1 cm. The indirect effect is +5.50 m and the total geoid correction thus varies between −1.2 cm at the equator to 1.9 cm at the poles. Finally, the correction needed to the atmospheric effect if Stokes’s formula is used in a spherical approximation, rather than an ellipsoidal approximation, of the Earth varies between 0.3 cm and 4.0 cm at the equator and pole, respectively.     

Truncation error formulae for the disturbing gravity vector

Recurrence relations have been derived for truncation error coefficients of the extended Stokes' function and its partial derivatives required in the computation of the disturbing gravity vector at any elevation above the earth's surface. The corresponding formulae, the example of values of the truncation error coefficients for H=30.1 km and ψ₀=30^∘ and the estimations of truncation error are given in this article. Received: 26 January 1996 / Accepted: 11 June 1997     

Topographic and atmospheric corrections of gravimetric geoid determination with special emphasis on the effects of harmonics of degrees zero and one

 The topographic and atmospheric effects of gravimetric geoid determination by the modified Stokes formula, which combines terrestrial gravity and a global geopotential model, are presented. Special emphasis is given to the zero- and first-degree effects. The normal potential is defined in the traditional way, such that the disturbing potential in the exterior of the masses contains no zero- and first-degree harmonics. In contrast, it is shown that, as a result of the topographic masses, the gravimetric geoid includes such harmonics of the order of several centimetres. In addition, the atmosphere contributes with a zero-degree harmonic of magnitude within 1 cm. Received: 5 November 1999 / Accepted: 22 January 2001     

Truncated geoid and gravity inversion for one point-mass anomaly

The truncated geoid, defined by the truncated Stokes' integral transform, an integral convolution of gravity anomalies with the Stokes' function on a spherical cap, is often used as a mathematical tool in geoid computations via Stokes' integral to overcome computational difficulties, particularly the need to integrate over the entire boundary spheroid. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that the truncated geoid does, besides having mathematical applications, have physical interpretation, and thus may be used in gravity inversion. A very simple model of one point-mass anomaly is chosen and a method for inverting its synthetic gravity field with the use of the truncated geoid is presented. The method of inverting the synthetic field generated by one point-mass anomaly has become fundamental for the authors' inversion studies for sets of point-mass anomalies, which are published in a separate paper. More general applications are currently under investigation. Since an inversion technique for physically meaningful mass distributions based on the truncated geoid has not yet been developed, this work is not related to any of the existing gravity inversion techniques. The inversion for one point mass is based on the onset of the so-called dimple event, which occurs in the sequence of surfaces (or profiles) of the first derivative of the truncated geoid with respect to the truncation parameter (radius of the integration cap), its only free parameter. Computing the truncated geoid at various values of the truncation parameter may be understood as spatial filtering of surface gravity data, a type of weighted spherical windowing method. Studying the change of the truncated geoid represented by its first derivative may be understood as a data enhancement method. The instant of the dimple onset is practically independent of the mass of the point anomaly and linearly dependent on its depth. Received: 26 September 1996 /Accepted: 28 September 1998     

Geoid models around Sognefjord using depth data

Bathymetry data from Sognefjord, Norway, have been included in a terrain model, and their influence on the geoid has been calculated. The test area, located in the western part of Norway, was chosen due to its deep fjords and high mountains. Inclusion of bathymetry data in the terrain model altered the computed gravimetric geoid by as much as a few decimeters. The effect was detectable to a distance of more than 100 km. All calculated geoids, both with and without bathymetry data in the terrain model, fit the geoidal heights determined by available Global Positioning System (GPS) and levelling heights at the sub-decimetre level. Contrary to expectations, the accuracy in geoid prediction was reduced when using bathymetric data. The geoid changes were largest over the fjord where no GPS points were located. Different methods on the same area [isostatic and Residual Terrain Model (RTM)-terrain reductions] showed differences of approximately 1 m. Rigorous distinction between quasigeoid and geoid was found to be essential in this kind of area. Received: 12 May 1997 / Accepted 7 May 1998     

Terrain effects in the atmospheric gravity and geoid corrections

In view of the smallness of the atmospheric mass compared to the mass variations within the Earth, it is generally assumed in physical geodesy that the terrain effects are negligible. Subsequently most models assume a spherical or ellipsoidal layering of the atmosphere. The removal and restoring of the atmosphere in solving the exterior boundary value problems thus correspond to gravity and geoid corrections of the order of 0.9 mGal and -0.7 cm, respectively.We demonstrate that the gravity terrain correction for the removal of the atmosphere is of the order of 50µGal/km of elevation with a maximum close to 0.5 mGal at the top of Mount Everest. The corresponding effect on the geoid may reach several centimetres in mountainous regions. Also the total effect on geoid determination for removal and restoring the atmosphere may contribute significantly, in particular by long wavelengths. This is not the case for the quasi geoid in mountainous regions.     

The GEOID96 high-resolution geoid height model for the United States

The 2 arc-minute × 2 arc-minute geoid model (GEOID96) for the United States supports the conversion between North American Datum 1983 (NAD 83) ellipsoid heights and North American Vertical Datum 1988 (NAVD 88) Helmert heights. GEOID96 includes information from global positioning system (GPS) height measurements at optically leveled benchmarks. A separate geocentric gravimetric geoid, G96SSS, was first calculated, then datum transformations and least-squares collocation were used to convert from G96SSS to GEOID96. Fits of 2951 GPS/level (ITRF94/NAVD 88) benchmarks to G96SSS show a 15.1-cm root mean square (RMS) around a tilted plane (0.06 ppm, 178^∘ azimuth), with a mean value of −31.4 cm (15.6-cm RMS without plane). This mean represents a bias in NAVD 88 from global mean sea level, remaining nearly constant when computed from subsets of benchmarks. Fits of 2951 GPS/level (NAD 83/NAVD 88) benchmarks to GEOID96 show a 5.5-cm RMS (no tilts, zero average), due primarily to GPS error. The correlated error was 2.5 cm, decorrelating at 40 km, and is due to gravity, geoid and GPS errors. Differences between GEOID96 and GEOID93 range from −122 to +374 cm due primarily to the non-geocentricity of NAD 83. Received: 28 July 1997 / Accepted: 2 September 1998     

Diurnal atmospheric forcing and temporal variations of the nutation amplitudes

A 29-year time-series of four-times-daily atmospheric effective angular momentum (EAM) estimates is used to study the atmospheric influence on nutation. The most important atmospheric contributions are found for the prograde annual (77 μas), retrograde annual (53 as), prograde semiannual (45 as), and for the constant offset of the pole (δψsinɛ₀=−86 as, δɛ=77 as). Among them only the prograde semiannual component is driven mostly by the wind term of the EAM function, while in all other cases the pressure term is dominant. These are nonnegligible quantities which should be taken into account in the new theory of nutation. Comparison with the VLBI corrections to the IAU 1980 nutation model taking into account the ocean tide contribution yields good agreement for the prograde annual and semiannual nutations. We also investigated time variability of the atmospheric contribution to the nutation amplitudes by performing the sliding-window least-squares analysis of both the atmospheric excitation and VLBI nutation data. Almost all detected variations of atmospheric origin can be attributed to the pressure term, the biggest being the in-phase annual prograde component (about 30 as) and the retrograde one (as much as 100200 as). These variations, if physical, limit the precision of classical modeling of nutation to the level of 0.1 mas. Comparison with the VLBI data shows significant correlation for the retrograde annual nutation after 1989, while for the prograde annual term there is a high correlation in shape but the size of the atmospherically driven variations is about three times less than deduced from the VLBI data. This discrepancy in size can be attributed either to inaccuracy of the theoretical transfer function or the frequency-dependent ocean response to the pressure variations. Our comparison also yields a considerably better agreement with the VLBI nutation data when using the EAM function without the IB correction for ocean response, which indicates that this correction is not adequate for nearly diurnal variations. Received: 10 September 1997 / Accepted: 5 March 1998     

Some modifications of Stokes' formula that account for truncation and potential coefficient errors

 Stokes' formula from 1849 is still the basis for the gravimetric determination of the geoid. The modification of the formula, originating with Molodensky, aims at reducing the truncation error outside a spherical cap of integration. This goal is still prevalent among various modifications. In contrast to these approaches, some least-squares types of modification that aim at reducing the truncation error, as well as the error stemming from the potential coefficients, are demonstrated. The least-squares estimators are provided in the two cases that (1) Stokes' kernel is a priori modified (e.g. according to Molodensky's approach) and (2) Stokes' kernel is optimally modified to minimize the global mean square error. Meissl-type modifications are also studied. In addition, the use of a higher than second-degree reference field versus the original (Pizzetti-type) reference field is discussed, and it is concluded that the former choice of reference field implies increased computer labour to achieve the same result as with the original reference field. Received: 14 December 1998 / Accepted: 4 October 1999