A program for bathymetry prediction from vertical gravity gradient anomalies and ship soundings

Abstract

We design a program to calculate bathymetry model by combining vertical gravity gradients anomalies (VGG) and ship soundings. A bathymetry model in the experimental area (0 ∼ 30° N, 150 ∼ 210° E) from the North Pacific is calculated with the program. The bathymetry prediction procedure is validated by comparing the result to in situ ship depth soundings and existing models. The accuracy of the result is about 132.9 m, better than most of the existing models, such as GEBCO, DTU10, ETOPO1, and SIO V15.1. If VGG and gravity anomaly data are combined, the accuracy of recovered bathymetry model will increase by about 29.5 % to about 111.7 m, comparing to SIO V15.1. The bathymetry model constructed using VGG will be independent of gravity anomalies, and can be used to analyze the isostatic mechanism of ocean lithosphere with 3D admittance analysis technology. The accuracy of bathymetry prediction can be improved further by combining VGG and gravity anomaly data.