A geoid solution for airborne gravity data

Abstract

Airborne gravity data is usually attached with satellite positioning of data points, which allow for the direct determination of the gravity disturbance at flight level. Assuming a suitable gridding of such data, Hotine’s modified integral formula can be combined with an Earth Gravity Model for the computation of the disturbing potential (T) at flight level. Based on T and the gravity disturbance data, we directly downward continue T to the geoid, and we present the final solution for the geoid height, including topographic corrections. It can be proved that the Taylor expansion of T converges if the flight level is at least twice the height of the topography, and the terrain potential will not contribute to the topographic correction. Hence, the simple topographic bias of the Bouguer shell yields the only topographic correction. Some numerical results demonstrate the technique used for downward continuation and topographic correction.