Local Multiscale Modelling of Geoid Undulations from Deflections of the Vertical

This paper deals with the problem of determining a scalar spherical field from its surface gradient, i.e., the modelling of geoid undulations from deflections of the vertical. Essential tools are integral formulae on the sphere based on Green’s function of the Beltrami operator. The determination of geoid undulations from deflections of the vertical is formulated as multiscale procedure involving scale-dependent regularized versions of the surface gradient of Green’s function. An advantage of the presented approach is that the multiscale method is based on locally supported wavelets. In consequence, local modelling of geoid undulations are calculable from locally available deflections of the vertical     

Inverse Vening Meinesz formula and deflection-geoid formula: applications to the predictions of gravity and geoid over the South China Sea

Using the spherical harmonic representations of the earth's disturbing potential and its functionals, we derive the inverse Vening Meinesz formula, which converts deflection of the vertical to gravity anomaly using the gradient of the H function. The deflection-geoid formula is also derived that converts deflection to geoidal undulation using the gradient of the C function. The two formulae are implemented by the 1D FFT and the 2D FFT methods. The innermost zone effect is derived. The inverse Vening Meinesz formula is employed to compute gravity anomalies and geoidal undulations over the South China Sea using deflections from Seasat, Geosat, ERS-1 and TOPEX//POSEIDON satellite altimetry. The 1D FFT yields the best result of 9.9-mgal rms difference with the shipborne gravity anomalies. Using the simulated deflections from EGM96, the deflection-geoid formula yields a 4-cm rms difference with the EGM96-generated geoid. The predicted gravity anomalies and geoidal undulations can be used to study the tectonic structure and the ocean circulations of the South China Sea. Received: 7 April 1997 / Accepted: 7 January 1998     

Combined regional geoid determination for the ERS-1 radar altimeter calibration

Summary A local model of the geoid in NE Italy and its section along the Venice ground track of the ERS-1 satellite of the European Space Agency is presented. The observational data consist of geoid undulations determined with a network of 25 stations of known orthometric (by spirit leveling) and ellipsoidal (by GPS differential survey) and of 13 deflections of the vertical measured at sites of the network for which, besides the ellipsoidal (WGS84) coordinates, also astronomic coordinates were known. The network covers an area of 1×1 degrees and is tied to a vertical and horizontal datum: one vertex of the network is the tide gauge of Punta Salute, in Venice, providing a tie to a mean sea level; a second vertex is the site for mobile laser systems at Monte Venda, on the Euganei Hills, for which geocentric coordinates resulted from the analysis of several LAGEOS passes.The interpolation algorithm used to map sparse and heterogeneous data to a regular grid of geoid undulations is based on least squares collocation and the autocorrelation function of the geoid undulations is modeled by a third order Markov process on flat earth. The algorithm has been applied to the observed undulations and deflections of the vertical after subtraction of the corresponding predictions made on the basis of the OSU91A global geoid model of the Ohio State University, complete to degree and order 360. The locally improved geoid results by adding back, at the nodes of a regular grid, the predictions of the global field to the least squares interpolated values. Comparison of the model values with the raw data at the observing stations indicates that the mean discrepancy is virtually zero with a root mean square dispersion of 8 cm, assuming that the ellipsoidal heights and vertical deflections data are affected by a random error of 3 cm and 0.5 respectively. The corrections resulting from the local data and added to the background 360×360 global model are described by a smooth surface with excursions from the reference surface not larger than ±30 cm.     

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.     

Deflection of the vertical and refraction in three-dimensional adjustment of terrestrial networks

Summary In this paper statistical tests are exploited in order to verify the hypotheses about the refraction and the deflection of the vertical pertaining to a geometrical model for the three-dimensional adjustment of terrestrial networks. The deflections of the vertical and the refraction coefficients can be assumed either as unknowns or fixed input data, at some or all the points of the network. The geometrical model, reported in the appendix for convenience, assumes as observables the slant distances, zenith and horizontal angles, without any reduction neither to the marks on the ground nor to the surface of reference. Further, the observation equations are derived and linearized in terms of Cartesian coordinates in Geocentric or Topocentric system; direction cosines of the vertical and of the ellipsoidal normal are adopted as the relevant direction parameters. Finally, an application to a network from Hradilek (1984), performed under different assumptions about the unknowns and the corrections of the angular observations due to the deflections of the vertical, shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Methods for computing deflections of the vertical by modifying Vening-Meinesz' function

Summary The application of combined data (satellite and terrestrial data) to the practical computation of height anomalies or the deflections of the vertical was originally suggested by (Molodensky et al. 1962). This idea usually leads to the modification of Stokes' or Vening-Meinesz' functions in the integration procedure. In the recent decade there were various suggestions in this regard especially for the computation of height anomalies. For example, a considerable mathematical insight into the modification of Stokes' function and the truncation of its integral has been provided by (Meissl 1971, Houtze et al. 1979, Rapp 1980, Jekeli 1980). Five different methods for computing deflections of the vertical by modifying Vening-Meinesz' function are studied and compared with each other. The corresponding formulae, the values of the coefficients in each method and the estimations of their corresponding potential coefficient error and truncation error are given in this article. This paper was written at the Institut f. Angewandte Geod?sie, Technische Universit?t Graz, Austria.     

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     

Relation between geoidal undulation, deflection of the vertical and vertical gravity gradient revisited

The vertical gradients of gravity anomaly and gravity disturbance can be related to horizontal first derivatives of deflection of the vertical or second derivatives of geoidal undulations. These are simplified relations of which different variations have found application in satellite altimetry with the implicit assumption that the neglected terms—using remove-restore—are sufficiently small. In this paper, the different simplified relations are rigorously connected and the neglected terms are made explicit. The main neglected terms are a curvilinear term that accounts for the difference between second derivatives in a Cartesian system and on a spherical surface, and a small circle term that stems from the difference between second derivatives on a great and small circle. The neglected terms were compared with the dynamic ocean topography (DOT) and the requirements on the GOCE gravity gradients. In addition, the signal root-mean-square (RMS) of the neglected terms and vertical gravity gradient were compared, and the effect of a remove-restore procedure was studied. These analyses show that both neglected terms have the same order of magnitude as the DOT gradient signal and may be above the GOCE requirements, and should be accounted for when combining altimetry derived and GOCE measured gradients. The signal RMS of both neglected terms is in general small when compared with the signal RMS of the vertical gravity gradient, but they may introduce gradient errors above the spherical approximation error. Remove-restore with gravity field models reduces the errors in the vertical gravity gradient, but it appears that errors above the spherical approximation error cannot be avoided at individual locations. When computing the vertical gradient of gravity anomaly from satellite altimeter data using deflections of the vertical, the small circle term is readily available and can be included. The direct computation of the vertical gradient of gravity disturbance from satellite altimeter data is more difficult than the computation of the vertical gradient of gravity anomaly because in the former case the curvilinear term is needed, which is not readily available.     

利用垂线偏差计算大地水准面中央区效应的改进方法

为提高利用Molodensky公式反演测高大地水准面中央区效应的精度,视中央区为矩形域,将垂线偏差分量表示成双二次多项式插值形式,引入非奇异变换,推导出了大地水准面的计算公式。垂线偏差理论模型下的分析表明本文导出公式误差为零,而传统公式的误差与纬度以及垂线偏差子午分量与卯酉分量之间的比值有关;以中纬度区域分辨率为2'*2'的垂线偏差数据为背景场进行了实际计算,结果表明在反演计算点本身所在的1个网格对大地水准面的贡献时,传统公式与本文导出公式计算结果差值的最大值达数厘米。本文导出公式可为测高大地水准面的高精度反演提供理论依据。     

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 comparison of gravimetric undulations computed by the modified Molodensky truncation method and the method of least squares spectral combination by optimal integral kernels

Gravimetric geoid undulations have been computed by the modified Molodensky truncation method (the Meissl procedure) and by the method of least squares spectral combination by optimal kernels (the Wenzel procedure). These undulations have been compared in two manners. One comparison used Doppler-derived undulation-at 65 stations in the United States as references. A second comparison used Geos-3 derived undulations in 30°×30° areas in the Indian Ocean and Tonga Trench as references. the mean difference of undulation-computed by the Wenzel procedure was 0.6 m smaller than that of the Meissl procedure when compared to the Doppler derived undulations. The standard deviations of the differences of both procedures appeared to be not significantly different. There are no significant changes in the mean differences of both procedures when compared to Geos-3 derived undulations. The standard deviations of the differences computed by the Wenzel procedure were of the order of 0.2 m smaller than those computed by the Meissl procedure.     

ON THE EVALUATION OF DEFLECTIONS OF THE VERTICAL USING FFT TECHNIQUE

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On the evaluation of deflections of the vertical using FFT technique

There exist three types of convolution formulae for the efficient evaluation of gravity field convolution integrals, i.e., the planar 2D convolution, the spherical 2D convolution and the spherical 1D convolution. The largest drawback of both the planar and the spherical 2D FFT methods is that, due to the approximations in the kernel function, only inexact results can be achieved. Apparently, the reason is the meridian convergence at higher latitudes. As the meridians converge, the ??,?λ blocks do not form a rectangular grid, as is assumed in 2D FFT methods. It should be pointed out that the meridian convergence not only leads to an approximation error in the kernel function, but also causes an approximation error during the implementation of 2D FFT in computer. In order to meet the increasing need for precise determination of the vertica deflections, this paper derives a more precise planar 2D FFT formula for the computation of the vertical deflections. After having made a detailed comparison between the planar and the spherical 2D FFT formulae, we find out the main source of errors causing the loss in accuracy by applying the conventional spherical 2D FFT method. And then, a modified spherical 2D FFT formula for the computation of the vertical deflections is developed in this paper. A series of numerical tests have been carried out to illustrate the improvement made upon the old spherical 2D FFT. The second part of this paper is to discuss the influences of the spherical harmonic reference field, the limited capsize, and the singular integral on the computation of the vertical deflections. The results of the vertical deflections over China by applying the spherical 1D FFT formula with different integration radii have been compared to the astro-observed vertical deflections in the South China Sea to obtain a set of optimum deflection computation parameters.     

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.     

Methods for the computation of geoid undulations from potential coefficients

The undulations of the geoid may be computed from spherical harmonic potential coefficients of the earth’s gravitational field. This paper examines three procedures that reflect various points of view on how this computation should be carried out. One method requires only the flattening of a reference ellipsoid to be defined while the other two methods require a complete definition of the parameters of the ellipsoid. It was found that the various methods give essentially the same undulations provided that correct parameters are chosen for the reference ellipsoid. A discussion is given on how these parameters are chosen and numerical results are reported using recent potential coefficient determinations.     

Earth gravity field recovered from CHAMP science orbit and accelerometer data

IntroductionSince the launch of man-made satellite early in1957 ,the research for satellite gravity has beentaken a wide attentioninfield of geodesy .Early ,the ground-based satellite tracking has providedan observational data set which has been used tode…     

利用CHAMP科学轨道数据和星载加速度计数据反演地球重力场

基于卫星动力学理论,采用德国地球科学中心GFZ提供的CHAMP精密轨道数据和星载加速度计数据,反演了36阶地球重力场模型CDS01S。用不同模型之间的位系数差比较模型CDS01S、EIGEN3P、EIGEN1S及EGM96,表明CDS01S模型的位系数最接近于EIGEN3P;比较上述几种模型的位系数精度,表明CDS01S模型的位系数精度高于EGM96;用CDS01S和GGM01C的前30阶位系数分别计算全球2°×2°网格的大地水准面起伏,两者之间的标准偏差为4.7 cm。     

Earth gravity field recovered from CHAMP science orbit and accelerometer data

The earth gravity field model CDS01S of degree and order 36 has been recovered from the post processed Science Orbits and on-board accelerometer data of GFZ's CHAMP satellite. The model resolves the geoid with an accuracy of better than 4 cm at a resolution of 700 km half-wavelength. By using the degree difference variances of geopotential coefficients to compare the model CDS01S with EIGEN3P, EIGEN1S and EGM96, the result indicates that the coefficients of CDS01S are most close to those of EIGEN3P. The result of the comparison between the accuracies of geopotential coefficients in the above models, indicates that the accuracy of coefficients in CDS01S is higher than that in EGM96. The geoid undulations of CDS01S and GGM01C up to 30 degrees are calculated and the standard deviation is 4. 7 cm between them.     

FFT-Evaluation and applications of gravity-field convolution integrals with mean and point data

Due to the fact that the spectrum of a convolution is the product of the spectra of the two convolved functions, the convolution integrals of physical geodesy can be evaluated very efficiently by the use of the fast Fourier transform (FFT) provided that gravity and/or terrain data are available on a regular grid. All Fourier transform-based methods usually treat the gridded data as point values despite the fact that these discrete values may have been obtained by averaging and they represent mean values over the whole area of a grid element. In the frequency domain, this fact can be taken into account very easily, because the spectra of mean and point data are related via a two-dimensional (2D) sinc function. The paper shows explicitly this relationship using the convolution integrals for the evaluation of geoid undulations, deflections of the vertical, and gravity and gradiometry terrain effects. Numerical tests are presented, indicating that the differences in the two approaches may become significant when highly accurate results are wanted. The application of the2D sinc function in the evaluation, update, and inversion of other convolution integrals is briefly discussed as well.     

基于逆Vening-Meinesz公式的测高重力中央区效应精密计算

为提高利用逆Vening-Meinesz公式反演测高重力中央区效应的精度,视中央区为矩形域,将垂线偏差分量表示成双二次多项式插值形式,引入非奇异变换,推导出了重力异常的计算公式。以低纬度区域2′×2′的垂线偏差实际数据为背景场进行了计算,结果表明,当中央区包含4个网格时,传统公式与推导出的重力异常计算公式误差的最大值大于1 mGal。推导出的公式可为高精度测高重力中央区效应的计算提供理论依据。