Evaluation of the fourth-order tesseroid formula and new combination approach to precisely determine gravitational potential

Abstract

Calculating topographic gravitational potential (GP) is a time-consuming process in terms of efficiency. Prism, mass-point, mass-line, and tesseroid formulas are generally used to calculate the topographic GP effect. In this study, we reformulate the higher-order formula of the tesseroid by Taylor series expansion and then evaluate the fourth-order formula by numerical tests. Different simulation computations show that the fourth-order formula is reliable. Using the conventional approach in numerical calculations, the approximation errors in the areas of the north and south poles are extremely large. Thus, in this study we propose an approach combining the precise numerical formula and tesseroid formulas, which can satisfactorily solve the calculation problem when the computation point is located in the polar areas or areas very near the surface. Furthermore, we suggest a “best matching choice” of new combination approach to calculate the GP precisely by conducting various experiments. Given the computation point at different positions, we may use different strategies. In the low latitude, we use a precise numerical formula, the fourth-order tesseroid formula, the second-order tesseroid formula, and the zero-order formula, in the 1° range (from the computation point), 1° to 15° range, 15° to 40° range, and the range outside 40°, respectively. The accuracy can reach 2 × 10−5 m2 s−2. For the high latitude, we use the precise numerical formula, fourth-order tesseroid, second-order tesseroid, and zero-order tesseroid formulas in the ranges of 0° to 1°, 1° to 10°, 10° to 30°, and the zones outside 30°, respectively. However, if an accuracy level of 2 × 10−5 m2 s−2 is required, the zero-order tesseroid formulas should not be used and the second-order tesseroid formula should be used in the region outside 15° for the low latitude and in the region outside 10° for the high latitude.