Rosborough approach for the determination of regional time variability of the gravity field from satellite gradiometry data

Abstract

It is well-known that Rosborough approach, based on spherical harmonics, can be efficiently applied to determine the unknown global gravitational field parameters in the framework of the so-called space-wise approach. Usually, for regional gravity field modeling radial basis functions instead of spherical harmonics are used as basis functions. Using the strong relationship between radial basis functions and spherical harmonics, the Rosborough counterparts of radial basis functions are developed. Based on these regionally supported Rosborough basis functions, all components of gravity-gradient tensor are expressed as series in regionally supported Rosborough basis functions. In a simulation study the feasibility of regional static and time-variable gravity field recovery from satellite gradiometry data using regionally supported Rosborough functions is tested.