Modification of the least-squares collocation method for non-stationary gravity field modelling

Geodesy deals with the accurate analysis of spatial and temporal variations in the geometry and physics of the Earth at local and global scales. In geodesy, least-squares collocation (LSC) is a bridge between the physical and statistical understanding of different functionals of the gravitational fi...

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Main Author: Darbeheshti, Neda
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Curtin University 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2228
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author Darbeheshti, Neda
author_facet Darbeheshti, Neda
author_sort Darbeheshti, Neda
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Geodesy deals with the accurate analysis of spatial and temporal variations in the geometry and physics of the Earth at local and global scales. In geodesy, least-squares collocation (LSC) is a bridge between the physical and statistical understanding of different functionals of the gravitational field of the Earth. This thesis specifically focuses on the [incorrect] implicit LSC assumptions of isotropy and homogeneity that create limitations on the application of LSC in non-stationary gravity field modeling. In particular, the work seeks to derive expressions for local and global analytical covariance functions that account for the anisotropy and heterogeneity of the Earth's gravity field.Standard LSC assumes 2D stationarity and 3D isotropy, and relies on a covariance function to account for spatial dependence in the observed data. However, the assumption that the spatial dependence is constant throughout the region of interest may sometimes be violated. Assuming a stationary covariance structure can result in over-smoothing, e.g., of the gravity field in mountains and under-smoothing in great plains. The kernel convolution method from spatial statistics is introduced for non-stationary covariance structures, and its advantage in dealing with non-stationarity in geodetic data is demonstrated.Tests of the new non-stationary solutions were performed over the Darling Fault, Western Australia, where the anomalous gravity field is anisotropic and non-stationary. Stationary and non-stationary covariance functions are compared in 2D LSC to the empirical example of gravity anomaly interpolation. The results with non-stationary covariance functions are better than standard LSC in terms of formal errors and cross-validation. Both non-stationarity of mean and covariance are considered in planar geoid determination by LSC to test how differently non-stationarity of mean and covariance affects the LSC result compared with GPS-levelling points in this area. Non-stationarity of the mean was not very considerable in this case, but non-stationary covariances were very effective when optimising the gravimetric quasigeoid to agree with the geometric quasigeoid.In addition, the importance of the choice of the parameters of the non-stationary covariance functions within a Bayesian framework and the improvement of the new method for different functionals on the globe are pointed out.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-22282017-02-20T06:38:33Z Modification of the least-squares collocation method for non-stationary gravity field modelling Darbeheshti, Neda homogeneity non-stationary gravity field modelling isotropy least-squares collocation (LSC) analytical covariance functions heterogeneity geodesy anisotropy Geodesy deals with the accurate analysis of spatial and temporal variations in the geometry and physics of the Earth at local and global scales. In geodesy, least-squares collocation (LSC) is a bridge between the physical and statistical understanding of different functionals of the gravitational field of the Earth. This thesis specifically focuses on the [incorrect] implicit LSC assumptions of isotropy and homogeneity that create limitations on the application of LSC in non-stationary gravity field modeling. In particular, the work seeks to derive expressions for local and global analytical covariance functions that account for the anisotropy and heterogeneity of the Earth's gravity field.Standard LSC assumes 2D stationarity and 3D isotropy, and relies on a covariance function to account for spatial dependence in the observed data. However, the assumption that the spatial dependence is constant throughout the region of interest may sometimes be violated. Assuming a stationary covariance structure can result in over-smoothing, e.g., of the gravity field in mountains and under-smoothing in great plains. The kernel convolution method from spatial statistics is introduced for non-stationary covariance structures, and its advantage in dealing with non-stationarity in geodetic data is demonstrated.Tests of the new non-stationary solutions were performed over the Darling Fault, Western Australia, where the anomalous gravity field is anisotropic and non-stationary. Stationary and non-stationary covariance functions are compared in 2D LSC to the empirical example of gravity anomaly interpolation. The results with non-stationary covariance functions are better than standard LSC in terms of formal errors and cross-validation. Both non-stationarity of mean and covariance are considered in planar geoid determination by LSC to test how differently non-stationarity of mean and covariance affects the LSC result compared with GPS-levelling points in this area. Non-stationarity of the mean was not very considerable in this case, but non-stationary covariances were very effective when optimising the gravimetric quasigeoid to agree with the geometric quasigeoid.In addition, the importance of the choice of the parameters of the non-stationary covariance functions within a Bayesian framework and the improvement of the new method for different functionals on the globe are pointed out. 2009 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2228 en Curtin University fulltext
spellingShingle homogeneity
non-stationary gravity field modelling
isotropy
least-squares collocation (LSC)
analytical covariance functions
heterogeneity
geodesy
anisotropy
Darbeheshti, Neda
Modification of the least-squares collocation method for non-stationary gravity field modelling
title Modification of the least-squares collocation method for non-stationary gravity field modelling
title_full Modification of the least-squares collocation method for non-stationary gravity field modelling
title_fullStr Modification of the least-squares collocation method for non-stationary gravity field modelling
title_full_unstemmed Modification of the least-squares collocation method for non-stationary gravity field modelling
title_short Modification of the least-squares collocation method for non-stationary gravity field modelling
title_sort modification of the least-squares collocation method for non-stationary gravity field modelling
topic homogeneity
non-stationary gravity field modelling
isotropy
least-squares collocation (LSC)
analytical covariance functions
heterogeneity
geodesy
anisotropy
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2228