A Study on Two-boundary Problems in Airborne Gravimetry and Satellite Gradiometry

Abstract

Current gravity data, which are used for refined studies of the Earth’s gravity field, result from cutting-edge technologies and advanced measuring techniques. They often refer to some exceptional surfaces or manifolds and can lead to interesting mathematical problems. In this paper, three cases are considered where airborne gravimetry is combined with terrestrial gravity data, airborne measurements are collected at two flight levels, and satellite gradiometry is combined with terrestrial gravity data. The three cases are studied mathematically and the disturbing potential is expressed explicitly. The spectral representation based on spherical harmonics is used. Subsequently, an optimum procedure is discussed in order to treat the overdetermined problems and to keep the typical regularity of harmonic functions at infinity. Some practical aspects are also mentioned.