Abstract
The downward continuation (DWC) method was used to determine the density contrast between the seawater and the ocean bottom topographic mass to estimate accurate bathymetry using the gravity-geologic method (GGM) in two study areas, which are located south of Greenland (Test Area #1: 40-50°W and 50-60°N) and south of Alaska (Test Area #2: 140-150°W and 45-55°N). The data used in this study include altimetry-derived gravity anomalies, shipborne depths and gravity anomalies. Density contrasts of 1.47 and 1.30 g cm^(-3) were estimated by DWC for the two test areas. The considerations of predicted density contrasts can enhance the accuracy of 3~4 m for GGM. The GGM model provided results closer to the NGDC (National Geophysical Data Center) model than the ETOPO1 (Earth topographical database 1) model. The differences along the shipborne tracks between the GGM and NGDC models for Test Areas #1 and #2 were 35.8 and 50.4 m in standard deviation, respectively. Furthermore, these differences were more strongly correlated with gravity anomalies than bathymetry in the test areas. It is shown that an accuracy of under 40 m can be obtained with comparisons to shipborne depths only in Test Area #1.
Highlights
Estimating accurate bathymetry is important for understanding many of the Earth’s physical properties
The ratio between the original and downward-continued gravity anomalies, which are located at sea level and the surface of Pl, respectively, was computed and used to predict the density contrast
The methodology of density contrast determination was based on downward continuation (DWC) filtered by a Gaussian filter and carried out by the Fast Fourier transform (FFT) technique
Summary
Estimating accurate bathymetry is important for understanding many of the Earth’s physical properties. It is useful for investigations of currents, tides and the sea floor topography; and, for geophysicists, bathymetry is helpful to understanding the characteristics of the Earth’s interior sources. Bathymetry can be used to figure out the shape and evolution of the Earth. Shipborne sonar sounding provides better spatial resolution along shipborne tracking, coverage is severely limited. In addition to shipborne measurements, satellite altimetry-derived gravity anomalies are often used to determine bathymetry, in remote areas such as the Arctic Ocean. One of the geophysical methods for predicting bathymetry is the gravity-geologic method (GGM), which was
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