Spherical panel clustering and its numerical aspects

In modern approximation methods, linear combinations in terms of (space localizing) radial basis functions play an essential role. Areas of application are numerical integration formulae on the unit sphere Ω corresponding to prescribed nodes, spherical spline interpolation and spherical wavelet approximation. The evaluation of such a linear combination is a time-consuming task, since a certain number of summations, multiplications and the calculation of scalar products are required. A generalization of the panel clustering method in a spherical setup is presented. The economy and efficiency of panel clustering are demonstrated for three fields of interest, namely upward continuation of the Earth's gravitational potential, geoid computation by spherical splines and wavelet reconstruction of the gravitational potential. Received: 1 October 1997 / Accepted: 1 April 1998     

Long-wavelength global gravity field models: GRIM4-S4, GRIM4-C4

Summary.  GFZ Potsdam and GRGS Toulouse/Grasse jointly developed a new pair of global models of the Earth's gravity field to satisfy the requirements of the recent and future geodetic and altimeter satellite missions. A precise gravity model is a prerequisite for precise satellite orbit restitution, tracking station positioning and altimeter data reduction. According to different applications envisaged, the new model exists in two parallel versions: the first one being derived exclusively from satellite tracking data acquired on 34 satellites, the second one further incorporating satellite altimeter data over the oceans and terrestrial gravity data. The most recent “satellite-only” gravity model is labelled GRIM4-S4 and the “combined” gravity model GRIM4-C4. The models are solutions in spherical harmonics and have a resolution up to degree and order 60 plus a few resonance terms in the case of GRIM4-S4, and up to degree/order 72 in the case of GRIM4-C4, corresponding to a spatial resolution of 555 km at the Earth's surface. The gravitational coefficients were estimated in a rigorous least squares adjustment simultaneously with ocean tidal terms and tracking station position parameters, so that each gravity model is associated with a consistent ocean tide model and a terrestrial reference frame built up by over 300 optical, laser and Doppler tracking stations. Comprehensive quality tests with external data and models, and test arc computations over a wide range of satellites have demonstrated the state-of-the-art capabilities of both solutions in long-wavelength geoid representation and in precise orbit computation. Received 1 February 1996; Accepted 17 July 1996     

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     

Geoid, topography, and the Bouguer plate or shell

 Topography plays an important role in solving many geodetic and geophysical problems. In the evaluation of a topographical effect, a planar model, a spherical model or an even more sophisticated model can be used. In most applications, the planar model is considered appropriate: recall the evaluation of gravity reductions of the free-air, Poincaré–Prey or Bouguer kind. For some applications, such as the evaluation of topographical effects in gravimetric geoid computations, it is preferable or even necessary to use at least the spherical model of topography. In modelling the topographical effect, the bulk of the effect comes from the Bouguer plate, in the case of the planar model, or from the Bouguer shell, in the case of the spherical model. The difference between the effects of the Bouguer plate and the Bouguer shell is studied, while the effect of the rest of topography, the terrain, is discussed elsewhere. It is argued that the classical Bouguer plate gravity reduction should be considered as a mathematical construction with unclear physical meaning. It is shown that if the reduction is understood to be reducing observed gravity onto the geoid through the Bouguer plate/shell then both models give practically identical answers, as associated with Poincaré's and Prey's work. It is shown why only the spherical model should be used in the evaluation of topographical effects in the Stokes–Helmert solution of Stokes' boundary-value problem. The reason for this is that the Bouguer plate model does not allow for a physically acceptable condensation scheme for the topography. Received: 24 December 1999 / Accepted: 11 December 2000     

Generalization of Laplace’s expansion to the earth’s surface

The external expansion of the Earth's potential V in spherical harmonics is generalized to the Earth's surface. Some additional expansions are also proposed which represent the potential of a finite body practically in the whole space. The series developed can be used for the combined evaluation of the Earth's potential from both satellite and gravimetric measurements.     

The spacetime gravitational field of a deformable body

The high-resolution analysis of orbit perturbations of terrestrial artificial satellites has documented that the eigengravitation of a massive body like the Earth changes in time, namely with periodic and aperiodic constituents. For the space-time variation of the gravitational field the action of internal and external volume as well as surface forces on a deformable massive body are responsible. Free of any assumption on the symmetry of the constitution of the deformable body we review the incremental spatial (“Eulerian”) and material (“Lagrangean”) gravitational field equations, in particular the source terms (two constituents: the divergence of the displacement field as well as the projection of the displacement field onto the gradient of the reference mass density function) and the `jump conditions' at the boundary surface of the body as well as at internal interfaces both in linear approximation. A spherical harmonic expansion in terms of multipoles of the incremental Eulerian gravitational potential is presented. Three types of spherical multipoles are identified, namely the dilatation multipoles, the transport displacement multipoles and those multipoles which are generated by mass condensation onto the boundary reference surface or internal interfaces. The degree-one term has been identified as non-zero, thus as a “dipole moment” being responsible for the varying position of the deformable body's mass centre. Finally, for those deformable bodies which enjoy a spherically symmetric constitution, emphasis is on the functional relation between Green functions, namely between Fourier-/ Laplace-transformed volume versus surface Love-Shida functions (h(r),l(r) versus h ^′(r),l ^′(r)) and Love functions k(r) versus k ^′(r). The functional relation is numerically tested for an active tidal force/potential and an active loading force/potential, proving an excellent agreement with experimental results. Received: December 1995 / Accepted: 1 February 1997     

The nullfield method for the ellipsoidal Stokes problem

The ellipsoidal Stokes problem is one of the basic boundary-value problems for the Laplace equation which arises in physical geodesy. Up to now, geodecists have treated this and related problems with high-order series expansions of spherical and spheroidal (ellipsoidal) harmonics. In view of increasing computational power and modern numerical techniques, boundary element methods have become more and more popular in the last decade. This article demonstrates and investigates the nullfield method for a class of Robin boundary-value problems. The ellipsoidal Stokes problem belongs to this class. An integral equation formulation is achieved, and existence and uniqueness conditions are attained in view of the Fredholm alternative. Explicit expressions for the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for the boundary integral operator are provided. Received: 22 October 1996 / Accepted: 4 August 1997     

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     

Determination of the free core nutation period from tidal gravity observations of the GGP superconducting gravimeter network

This study is based on 25 long time-series of tidal gravity observations recorded with superconducting gravimeters at 20 stations belonging to the Global Geodynamic Project (GGP). We investigate the diurnal waves around the liquid core resonance, i.e., K ₁, ψ₁ and φ₁, to determine the free core nutation (FCN) period, and compare these experimental results with models of the Earth response to the tidal forces. For this purpose, it is necessary to compute corrected amplitude factors and phase differences by subtracting the ocean tide loading (OTL) effect. To determine this loading effect for each wave, it was thus necessary to interpolate the contribution of the smaller oceanic constituents from the four well determined diurnal waves, i.e., Q ₁, O ₁, P ₁, K ₁. It was done for 11 different ocean tide models: SCW80, CSR3.0, CSR4.0, FES95.2, FES99, FES02, TPXO2, ORI96, AG95, NAO99 and GOT00. The numerical results show that no model is decisively better than the others and that a mean tidal loading vector gives the most stable solution for a study of the liquid core resonance. We compared solutions based on the mean of the 11 ocean models to subsets of six models used in a previous study and five more recent ones. The calibration errors put a limit on the accuracy of our global results at the level of ± 0.1%, although the tidal factors of O ₁ and K ₁ are determined with an internal precision of close to 0.05%. The results for O ₁ more closely fit the DDW99 non-hydrostatic anelastic model than the elastic one. However, the observed tidal factors of K ₁ and ψ₁ correspond to a shift of the observed resonance with respect to this model. The MAT01 model better fits this resonance shape. From our tidal gravity data set, we computed the FCN eigenperiod. Our best estimation is 429.7 sidereal days (SD), with a 95% confidence interval of (427.3, 432.1).     

Ocean tidal parameters from starlette data

Starlette was launched in 1975 in order to study temporal variations in the Earth’s gravity field; in particular, tidal and Earth rotation effects. For the period April 1983 to April 1984 over12,700 normal points of laser ranging data to Starlette have been sub-divided into49 near consecutive 5–6 day arcs. Normal equations for each arc as obtained from a least-squares data reduction procedure, were solved for ocean tidal parameters along with other geodetic and geodynamic parameters. The tidal parameters are defined relative to Wahr’s body tides and Wahr’s nutation model and show fair agreement with other satellite derived results and those obtained from spherical harmonic decomposition of global ocean tidal models.     

A synthetic Earth for use in geodesy

 A synthetic Earth and its gravity field that can be represented at different resolutions for testing and comparing existing and new methods used for global gravity-field determination are created. Both the boundary and boundary values of the gravity potential can be generated. The approach chosen also allows observables to be generated at aircraft flight height or at satellite altitude. The generation of the synthetic Earth shape (SES) and gravity-field quantities is based upon spherical harmonic expansions of the isostatically compensated equivalent rock topography and the EGM96 global geopotential model. Spherical harmonic models are developed for both the synthetic Earth topography (SET) and the synthetic Earth potential (SEP) up to degree and order 2160 corresponding to a 5′×5′ resolution. Various sets of SET, SES and SEP with boundary geometry and boundary values at different resolutions can be generated using low-pass filters applied to the expansions. The representation is achieved in point sets based upon refined triangulation of a octahedral geometry projected onto the chosen reference ellipsoid. The filter cut-offs relate to the sampling pattern in order to avoid aliasing effects. Examples of the SET and its gravity field are shown for a resolution with a Nyquist sampling rate of 8.27 degrees. Received: 6 August 1999 / Accepted: 26 April 2000     

W0: an estimate in the Finnish Height Datum N60, epoch 1993.4, from twenty-five GPS points of the Baltic Sea Level Project

Based upon a data set of 25 points of the Baltic Sea Level Project, second campaign 1993.4, which are close to mareographic stations, described by (1) GPS derived Cartesian coordinates in the World Geodetic Reference System 1984 and (2) orthometric heights in the Finnish Height Datum N60, epoch 1993.4, we have computed the primary geodetic parameter W ₀(1993.4) for the epoch 1993.4 according to the following model. The Cartesian coordinates of the GPS stations have been converted into spheroidal coordinates. The gravity potential as the additive decomposition of the gravitational potential and the centrifugal potential has been computed for any GPS station in spheroidal coordinates, namely for a global spheroidal model of the gravitational potential field. For a global set of spheroidal harmonic coefficients a transformation of spherical harmonic coefficients into spheroidal harmonic coefficients has been implemented and applied to the global spherical model OSU 91A up to degree/order 360/360. The gravity potential with respect to a global spheroidal model of degree/order 360/360 has been finally transformed by means of the orthometric heights of the GPS stations with respect to the Finnish Height Datum N60, epoch 1993.4, in terms of the spheroidal “free-air” potential reduction in order to produce the spheroidal W ₀(1993.4) value. As a mean of those 25 W ₀(1993.4) data as well as a root mean square error estimation we computed W ₀(1993.4)=(6 263 685.58 ± 0.36) kgal × m. Finally a comparison of different W ₀ data with respect to a spherical harmonic global model and spheroidal harmonic global model of Somigliana-Pizetti type (level ellipsoid as a reference, degree/order 2/0) according to The Geodesist's Handbook 1992 has been made. Received: 7 November 1996 / Accepted: 27 March 1997     

Comment on Sjöberg (2006) “The topographic bias by analytical continuation in physical geodesy” J Geod 81(5):345–350

The analytical, or harmonic, downward continuation of the external gravity potential into the topographic masses gives rise to a bias, which is called the analytical (downward) continuation (ADC) bias (Ågren in J Geod 78:314–332, 2004a) or the topographic bias (Sjöberg in J Geod, 2006). In Sjöberg (J Geod, 2006), a proof is presented that this bias is exactly equal to a simple two-term expression, which depends only on the topographic height and density in the evaluation point P. The expression is simple and inexpensive to evaluate. In this paper, we wish to question the validity of the expression given in Sjöberg (J Geod, 2006) for realistic terrains. The topographic bias is commonly defined as the difference between the true (internal) and the analytically downward continued external geopotential, evaluated at sea level. Typically both are evaluated as external or internal spherical harmonic (SH) expansions, which may however not always converge. If they do converge, they have been well known in the literature (e.g., Ågren (J Geod 78:314–332, 2004a), Wang (J Geod 71:70–82, 1997)) to produce a bias that contains additional terms over and beyond the simple expression. Below we analyze the additional terms that arise when applying the method to realistic terrains. Also, for realistic terrains, analytical downward continuation may not even be strictly possible. In practice, for discrete data sets, it is always possible, but then, an implicit smoothing of the terrain, or terrain potential, always takes place.     

The temporal variation of the spherical and Cartesian multipoles of the gravity field: the generalized MacCullagh representation

 The Cartesian moments of the mass density of a gravitating body and the spherical harmonic coefficients of its gravitational field are related in a peculiar way. In particular, the products of inertia can be expressed by the spherical harmonic coefficients of the gravitational potential as was derived by MacCullagh for a rigid body. Here the MacCullagh formulae are extended to a deformable body which is restricted to radial symmetry in order to apply the Love–Shida hypothesis. The mass conservation law allows a representation of the incremental mass density by the respective excitation function. A representation of an arbitrary Cartesian monome is always possible by sums of solid spherical harmonics multiplied by powers of the radius. Introducing these representations into the definition of the Cartesian moments, an extension of the MacCullagh formulae is obtained. In particular, for excitation functions with a vanishing harmonic coefficient of degree zero, the (diagonal) incremental moments of inertia also can be represented by the excitation coefficients. Four types of excitation functions are considered, namely: (1) tidal excitation; (2) loading potential; (3) centrifugal potential; and (4) transverse surface stress. One application of the results could be model computation of the length-of-day variations and polar motion, which depend on the moments of inertia. Received: 27 July 1999 / Accepted: 24 May 2000     

Performance of three types of Stokes's kernel in the combined solution for the geoid

When regional gravity data are used to compute a gravimetric geoid in conjunction with a geopotential model, it is sometimes implied that the terrestrial gravity data correct any erroneous wavelengths present in the geopotential model. This assertion is investigated. The propagation of errors from the low-frequency terrestrial gravity field into the geoid is derived for the spherical Stokes integral, the spheroidal Stokes integral and the Molodensky-modified spheroidal Stokes integral. It is shown that error-free terrestrial gravity data, if used in a spherical cap of limited extent, cannot completely correct the geopotential model. Using a standard norm, it is shown that the spheroidal and Molodensky-modified integration kernels offer a preferable approach. This is because they can filter out a large amount of the low-frequency errors expected to exist in terrestrial gravity anomalies and thus rely more on the low-frequency geopotential model, which currently offers the best source of this information. Received: 11 August 1997 / Accepted: 18 August 1998     

Methodology for the combination of sub-daily Earth rotation from GPS and VLBI observations

A combination procedure of Earth orientation parameters from Global Positioning System (GPS) and Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations was developed on the basis of homogeneous normal equation systems. The emphasis and purpose of the combination was the determination of sub-daily polar motion (PM) and universal time (UT1) for a long time-span of 13 years. Time series with an hourly resolution and a model for tidal variations of PM and UT1-TAI (dUT1) were estimated. In both cases, 14-day nutation corrections were estimated simultaneously with the ERPs. Due to the combination procedure, it was warranted that the strengths of both techniques were preserved. At the same time, only a minimum of de-correlating or stabilizing constraints were necessary. Hereby, a PM time series was determined, whose precision is mainly dominated by GPS observations. However, this setup benefits from the fact that VLBI delivered nutation and dUT1 estimates at the same time. An even bigger enhancement can be seen for the dUT1 estimation, where the high-frequency variations are provided by GPS, while the long term trend is defined by VLBI. The estimated combined tidal PM and dUT1 model was predominantly determined from the GPS observations. Overall, the combined tidal model for the first time completely comprises the geometrical benefits of VLBI and GPS observations. In terms of root mean squared (RMS) differences, the tidal amplitudes agree with other empirical single-technique tidal models below 4 μas in PM and 0.25 μs in dUT1. The noise floor of the tidal ERP model was investigated in three ways resulting in about 1 μas for diurnal PM and 0.07 μs for diurnal dUT1 while the semi-diurnal components have a slightly better accuracy.     

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     

The Abel-Poisson kernel and the Abel-Poisson integral in a moving tangent space

The upward-downward continuation of a harmonic function like the gravitational potential is conventionally based on the direct-inverse Abel-Poisson integral with respect to a sphere of reference. Here we aim at an error estimation of the “planar approximation” of the Abel-Poisson kernel, which is often used due to its convolution form. Such a convolution form is a prerequisite to applying fast Fourier transformation techniques. By means of an oblique azimuthal map projection / projection onto the local tangent plane at an evaluation point of the reference sphere of type “equiareal” we arrive at a rigorous transformation of the Abel-Poisson kernel/Abel-Poisson integral in a convolution form. As soon as we expand the “equiareal” Abel-Poisson kernel/Abel-Poisson integral we gain the “planar approximation”. The differences between the exact Abel-Poisson kernel of type “equiareal” and the “planar approximation” are plotted and tabulated. Six configurations are studied in detail in order to document the error budget, which varies from 0.1% for points at a spherical height H=10km above the terrestrial reference sphere up to 98% for points at a spherical height H = 6.3×10⁶km. Received: 18 March 1997 / Accepted: 19 January 1998     

地球自转率潮汐变化尺度因子的确定

地球自转速率的潮汐变化与尺度因子成正比 ,影响尺度因子各种地球物理机制是复杂的 ,主要有液核、海洋动力学 (平衡海潮和非平衡海潮 )、大气、地幔滞弹性等。文中讨论了大气、地幔滞弹性 ,并对影响地球自转尺度因子的同一机制不同理论模型进行了对比分析