On the accuracy of the bathymetry-generated gravitational field quantities for a depth-dependent seawater density distribution |
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Authors: | Robert Tenzer Pavel Novák Vladislav Gladkikh |
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Institution: | (1) National School of Surveying, Division of Science, University of Otago, 310 Castle Street, Box 56, Dunedin, 9054, New Zealand; |
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Abstract: | In geophysical studies investigating the lithosphere structure, the gravitational field generated by the ocean density contrast
(i.e., bathymetry-generated gravitational field) represents a significant amount of the signal to be modelled and subsequently
removed from the Earth’s gravity field. The ocean density contrast is typically calculated as the difference between the mean
density values of the Earth’s crust and seawater. The approximation of the actual seawater density distribution by its mean
value yields relative errors up to about 2% in computed quantities of the gravitational field. To reduce these errors, a more
realistic model of the seawater density distribution is utilized based on the analysis of existing oceanographic data of salinity,
temperature, and pressure (depth). We study the accuracy of the bathymetry-generated gravitational field quantities formulated
for a depth-dependent model of the seawater density distribution. This density distribution approximates the seawater density
variations due to an increasing pressure with depth, whereas smaller lateral density variations caused by salinity, temperature,
and other oceanographic factors are not taken into consideration. The error analysis reveals that the approximation of the
seawater density by the depth-dependent density model reduces the maximum errors to less than 0.6%. The corresponding depth-averaged
errors are below 0.1%. The depth-dependent seawater density model is further facilitated in expressions for computing the
bathymetry-generated gravitational field quantities by means of the spherical bathymetric (ocean bottom depth) functions.
The numerical realization reveals large differences in the results obtained with and without consideration of the depth-dependent
seawater density distribution. The maxima of absolute differences reach 201 m2/s2 and 16.5 mGal in computed values of the potential and attraction, respectively. The application of the depth-dependent seawater
density model thus significantly improves the accuracy in the forward modelling of the bathymetric gravitational field quantities. |
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