Assessment of systematic errors in the surface gravity anomalies over North America using the GRACE gravity model

Abstract

SUMMARY The surface gravity data collected via traditional techniques such as ground-based, shipboard and airborne gravimetry describe precisely the local gravity field, but they are often biased by systematic errors. On the other hand, the spherical harmonic gravity models determined from satellite missions, in particular, recent models from CHAMP and GRACE, homogenously and accurately describe the low-degree components of the Earth’s gravity field. However, they are subject to large omission errors. The surface and satellite gravity data are therefore complementary in terms of spectral composition. In this paper, we aim to assess the systematic errors of low spherical harmonic degrees in the surface gravity anomalies over North America using a GRACE gravity model. A prerequisite is the extraction of the low-degree components from the surface data to make them compatible with GRACE data. Three types of methods are tested using synthetic data: low-pass filtering, the inverse Stokes integral, and spherical harmonic analysis. The results demonstrate that the spherical harmonic analysis works best. Eighty-five per cent of difference between the synthetic gravity anomalies generated from EGM96 and GGM02S from degrees 2 to 90 can be modelled for a region covering North America and neighbouring areas. Assuming EGM96 is developed solely from the surface gravity data with the same accuracy and GGM02S errorless, one way to understand the 85 per cent difference is that it represents the systematic error from the region of study, while the remaining 15 per cent originates from the data outside of the region. To estimate systematic errors in the surface gravity data, Helmert gravity anomalies are generated from both surface and GRACE data on the geoid. Their differences are expanded into surface spherical harmonics. The results show that the systematic errors for degrees 2 to 90 range from about −6 to 13 mGal with a RMS value of 1.4 mGal over North America. A few significant data gaps can be identified from the resulting error map. The errors over oceans appear to be related to the sea surface topography. These systematic errors must be taken into consideration when the surface gravity data are used to validate future satellite gravity missions.