Evaluation of Gravity Anomaly and Geoid Height Derived from Various Global Geopotential Model

Abstract

There are 177 global geopotential models (GGM) that have been published in the International Centre for Global Earth Model (ICGEM). All geopotential models can be evaluated to determine the best-fit geoid model for each place. Each geopotential model in ICGEM has their accuracy and resolutions based on the gravity field in that place. In this study, a statistical analysis has been made between the differences of geoid heights derived from the geopotential models in ICGEM and GPS/ Levelling data and the statistical analysis of gravity anomaly derived between geopotential models and terrestrial gravity data. There were six global geopotential models involved with 3 satellite-only models and 3 combined models. The result of statistical analysis for those geopotential models shows that the satellite-only model, GOCO-06S can determine the accurate information of the geoid heights derived from the geopotential models and GPS/Levelling data. The results also show that the gravity anomaly derived from SGG-UGM-2 with the maximum degree and order 2190 of spherical harmonic coefficients is the most suitable geopotential model that can be used as a reference in Peninsular Malaysia for further determination.