Analysis of the impact on the gravity field determination from the data with the ununiform noise distribution using block-diagonal least squares method

The block-diagonal least squares method, which theoretically has specific requirements for the observation data and the spatial distribution of its precision, plays an important role in ultra-high degree gravity field determination. On the basis of block-diagonal least squares method, three data processing strategies are employed to determine the gravity field models using three kinds of simulated global grid data with different noise spatial distri- bution in this paper. The numerical results show that when we employed the weight matrix corresponding to the noise of the observation data, the model computed by the least squares using the full normal matrix has much higher precision than the one estimated only using the block part of the normal matrix. The model computed by the block-diagonal least squares method without the weight matrix has slightly lower precision than the model computed using the rigorous least squares with the weight matrix. The result offers valuable reference to the using of block-diagonal least squares method in ultra-high gravity model determination.

A High-Resolution Earth’s Gravity Field Model SGG-UGM-2 from GOCE,GRACE,Satellite Altimetry,and EGM2008

This paper focuses on estimating a new high-resolution Earth’s gravity field model named SGG-UGM-2 from satellite gravimetry,satellite altimetry,and Earth Gravitational Model 2008(EGM2008)-derived gravity data based on the theory of the ellipsoidal harmonic analysis and coefficient transformation(EHA-CT).We first derive the related formulas of the EHA-CT method,which is used for computing the spherical harmonic coefficients from grid area-mean and point gravity anomalies on the ellipsoid.The derived formulas are successfully evaluated based on numerical experiments.Then,based on the derived least-squares formulas of the EHA-CT method,we develop the new model SGG-UGM-2 up to degree 2190 and order 2159 by combining the observations of the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer(GOCE),the normal equation of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment(GRACE),marine gravity data derived from satellite altimetry data,and EGM2008-derived continental gravity data.The coefficients of degrees 251–2159 are estimated by solving the block-diagonal form normal equations of surface gravity anomalies(including the marine gravity data).The coefficients of degrees 2–250 are determined by combining the normal equations of satellite observations and surface gravity anomalies.The variance component estimation technique is used to estimate the relative weights of different observations.Finally,global positioning system(GPS)/leveling data in the mainland of China and the United States are used to validate SGG-UGM-2 together with other models,such as European improved gravity model of the earth by new techniques(EIGEN)-6C4,GECO,EGM2008,and SGG-UGM-1(the predecessor of SGG-UGM-2).Compared to other models,the model SGG-UGM-2 shows a promising performance in the GPS/leveling validation.All GOCE-related models have similar performances both in the mainland of China and the United States,and better performances than that of EGM2008 in the mainland of China.Due to the contribution of GRACE data and the new marine gravity anomalies,SGG-UGM-2 is slightly better than SGG-UGM-1 both in the mainland of China and the United States.