RTM gravity forward-modeling using topography/bathymetry data to improve high-degree global geopotential models in the coastal zone

We apply the residual terrain modeling (RTM) technique for gravity forward-modeling to successfully improve high-resolution global gravity fields at short spatial scales in coastal zones. The RTM scheme is combined with the concept of rock-equivalent topography, allowing to use a single uniform cons...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hirt, Christian
Format: Journal Article
Published: Taylor and Francis 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/45384
_version_ 1848757268294664192
author Hirt, Christian
author_facet Hirt, Christian
author_sort Hirt, Christian
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description We apply the residual terrain modeling (RTM) technique for gravity forward-modeling to successfully improve high-resolution global gravity fields at short spatial scales in coastal zones. The RTM scheme is combined with the concept of rock-equivalent topography, allowing to use a single uniform constant mass-density in the RTM forward-modeling, both at land and sea. SRTM30_PLUS bathymetry is merged with higher-resolution SRTM V4.1 land topography, and expanded into spherical harmonics to degree 2160, yielding a new and consistent high-degree RTM reference surface. The forward-modeling performance is demonstrated in coastal zones of Greece and Canada using ground-truth vertical deflections, gravity from land and shipborne gravimetry, and geoid heights from GPS/leveling, with improvements originating from bathymetry clearly identified. We demonstrate that the SRTM30_PLUS bathymetry carries information on gravity field structures at spatial scales less than 5 arc minutes, which can be used to augment EGM2008 in (rugged) coastal zones, both over land and marine areas. This may be of value (i) to partially reduce the signal omission error in EGM2008/GOCE-based height transfer in areas devoid of dense gravity data, (ii) to fill the gap between land gravity and shipborne gravity along rugged coastlines and (iii) for the development of next-generation altimetric gravity fields.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T09:25:23Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-45384
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T09:25:23Z
publishDate 2013
publisher Taylor and Francis
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-453842017-09-13T16:05:51Z RTM gravity forward-modeling using topography/bathymetry data to improve high-degree global geopotential models in the coastal zone Hirt, Christian forward-modeling coastal zone topography bathymetry Residual terrain model We apply the residual terrain modeling (RTM) technique for gravity forward-modeling to successfully improve high-resolution global gravity fields at short spatial scales in coastal zones. The RTM scheme is combined with the concept of rock-equivalent topography, allowing to use a single uniform constant mass-density in the RTM forward-modeling, both at land and sea. SRTM30_PLUS bathymetry is merged with higher-resolution SRTM V4.1 land topography, and expanded into spherical harmonics to degree 2160, yielding a new and consistent high-degree RTM reference surface. The forward-modeling performance is demonstrated in coastal zones of Greece and Canada using ground-truth vertical deflections, gravity from land and shipborne gravimetry, and geoid heights from GPS/leveling, with improvements originating from bathymetry clearly identified. We demonstrate that the SRTM30_PLUS bathymetry carries information on gravity field structures at spatial scales less than 5 arc minutes, which can be used to augment EGM2008 in (rugged) coastal zones, both over land and marine areas. This may be of value (i) to partially reduce the signal omission error in EGM2008/GOCE-based height transfer in areas devoid of dense gravity data, (ii) to fill the gap between land gravity and shipborne gravity along rugged coastlines and (iii) for the development of next-generation altimetric gravity fields. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/45384 10.1080/01490419.2013.779334 Taylor and Francis fulltext
spellingShingle forward-modeling
coastal zone
topography
bathymetry
Residual terrain model
Hirt, Christian
RTM gravity forward-modeling using topography/bathymetry data to improve high-degree global geopotential models in the coastal zone
title RTM gravity forward-modeling using topography/bathymetry data to improve high-degree global geopotential models in the coastal zone
title_full RTM gravity forward-modeling using topography/bathymetry data to improve high-degree global geopotential models in the coastal zone
title_fullStr RTM gravity forward-modeling using topography/bathymetry data to improve high-degree global geopotential models in the coastal zone
title_full_unstemmed RTM gravity forward-modeling using topography/bathymetry data to improve high-degree global geopotential models in the coastal zone
title_short RTM gravity forward-modeling using topography/bathymetry data to improve high-degree global geopotential models in the coastal zone
title_sort rtm gravity forward-modeling using topography/bathymetry data to improve high-degree global geopotential models in the coastal zone
topic forward-modeling
coastal zone
topography
bathymetry
Residual terrain model
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/45384