Development of a gravimetric geoid for New Zealand and a single national vertical datum

New Zealand, unlike most countries, does not have a single national vertical datum. Instead, twelve separate and poorly linked primary levelling networks tied to twelve different tide gauges are used. The current vertical datums are based on the false assumption that mean sea level, measured at the...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Amos, Matthew, Featherstone, Will
Other Authors: I N Tziavos
Format: Conference Paper
Published: Ziti Editions 2003
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/12609
_version_ 1848748121454018560
author Amos, Matthew
Featherstone, Will
author2 I N Tziavos
author_facet I N Tziavos
Amos, Matthew
Featherstone, Will
author_sort Amos, Matthew
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description New Zealand, unlike most countries, does not have a single national vertical datum. Instead, twelve separate and poorly linked primary levelling networks tied to twelve different tide gauges are used. The current vertical datums are based on the false assumption that mean sea level, measured at the twelve tide gauges, corresponds to an equipotential surface. Due to the effects of long-period tides and sea surface topography, offsets of up to 0.5 metres between vertical datums are possi-ble. In addition, no regional geoid model is available for New Zealand. A consequence of the multiple vertical datums is that the gravity observations are downward continued to twelve different surfaces. This will cause the anomalies to be distorted, especially in the medium wavelengths, which will propagate into the geoid solution, meaning that the initial solution will not completely unify the datums. An iterative process to achieve a better unification is proposed. It is expected that this approach will be more successful than using a geoid model based on distorted gravity anomalies. The results of a regional gravimetric geoid computation using land based gravity observations, satellite altimetry and a global geopotential model are also presented.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T07:00:00Z
format Conference Paper
id curtin-20.500.11937-12609
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T07:00:00Z
publishDate 2003
publisher Ziti Editions
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-126092017-01-30T11:31:41Z Development of a gravimetric geoid for New Zealand and a single national vertical datum Amos, Matthew Featherstone, Will I N Tziavos Gravimetric geoid New Zealand vertical datum uni-fication New Zealand, unlike most countries, does not have a single national vertical datum. Instead, twelve separate and poorly linked primary levelling networks tied to twelve different tide gauges are used. The current vertical datums are based on the false assumption that mean sea level, measured at the twelve tide gauges, corresponds to an equipotential surface. Due to the effects of long-period tides and sea surface topography, offsets of up to 0.5 metres between vertical datums are possi-ble. In addition, no regional geoid model is available for New Zealand. A consequence of the multiple vertical datums is that the gravity observations are downward continued to twelve different surfaces. This will cause the anomalies to be distorted, especially in the medium wavelengths, which will propagate into the geoid solution, meaning that the initial solution will not completely unify the datums. An iterative process to achieve a better unification is proposed. It is expected that this approach will be more successful than using a geoid model based on distorted gravity anomalies. The results of a regional gravimetric geoid computation using land based gravity observations, satellite altimetry and a global geopotential model are also presented. 2003 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/12609 Ziti Editions restricted
spellingShingle Gravimetric geoid
New Zealand
vertical datum uni-fication
Amos, Matthew
Featherstone, Will
Development of a gravimetric geoid for New Zealand and a single national vertical datum
title Development of a gravimetric geoid for New Zealand and a single national vertical datum
title_full Development of a gravimetric geoid for New Zealand and a single national vertical datum
title_fullStr Development of a gravimetric geoid for New Zealand and a single national vertical datum
title_full_unstemmed Development of a gravimetric geoid for New Zealand and a single national vertical datum
title_short Development of a gravimetric geoid for New Zealand and a single national vertical datum
title_sort development of a gravimetric geoid for new zealand and a single national vertical datum
topic Gravimetric geoid
New Zealand
vertical datum uni-fication
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/12609