Cap integration in spectral gravity forward modelling: near- and far-zone gravity effects via Molodensky’s truncation coefficients

Spectral gravity forward modelling is a technique that converts a band-limited topography into its implied gravitational field. This conversion implicitly relies on global integration of topographic masses. In this paper, a modification of the spectral technique is presented that provides gravity ef...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bucha, B., Hirt, C., Kuhn, Michael
Format: Journal Article
Published: Springer - Verlag 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/68253
_version_ 1848761784045928448
author Bucha, B.
Hirt, C.
Kuhn, Michael
author_facet Bucha, B.
Hirt, C.
Kuhn, Michael
author_sort Bucha, B.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Spectral gravity forward modelling is a technique that converts a band-limited topography into its implied gravitational field. This conversion implicitly relies on global integration of topographic masses. In this paper, a modification of the spectral technique is presented that provides gravity effects induced only by the masses located inside or outside a spherical cap centred at the evaluation point. This is achieved by altitude-dependent Molodensky’s truncation coefficients, for which we provide infinite series expansions and recurrence relations with a fixed number of terms. Both representations are generalized for an arbitrary integer power of the topography and arbitrary radial derivative. Because of the altitude-dependency of the truncation coefficients, a straightforward synthesis of the near- and far-zone gravity effects at dense grids on irregular surfaces (e.g. the Earth’s topography) is computationally extremely demanding. However, we show that this task can be efficiently performed using an analytical continuation based on the gradient approach, provided that formulae for radial derivatives of the truncation coefficients are available. To demonstrate the new cap-modified spectral technique, we forward model the Earth’s degree-360 topography, obtaining near- and far-zone effects on gravity disturbances expanded up to degree 3600. The computation is carried out on the Earth’s surface and the results are validated against an independent spatial-domain Newtonian integration ((Formula presented.) RMS agreement). The new technique is expected to assist in mitigating the spectral filter problem of residual terrain modelling and in the efficient construction of full-scale global gravity maps of highest spatial resolution.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T10:37:10Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-68253
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T10:37:10Z
publishDate 2018
publisher Springer - Verlag
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-682532019-02-04T05:52:14Z Cap integration in spectral gravity forward modelling: near- and far-zone gravity effects via Molodensky’s truncation coefficients Bucha, B. Hirt, C. Kuhn, Michael Spectral gravity forward modelling is a technique that converts a band-limited topography into its implied gravitational field. This conversion implicitly relies on global integration of topographic masses. In this paper, a modification of the spectral technique is presented that provides gravity effects induced only by the masses located inside or outside a spherical cap centred at the evaluation point. This is achieved by altitude-dependent Molodensky’s truncation coefficients, for which we provide infinite series expansions and recurrence relations with a fixed number of terms. Both representations are generalized for an arbitrary integer power of the topography and arbitrary radial derivative. Because of the altitude-dependency of the truncation coefficients, a straightforward synthesis of the near- and far-zone gravity effects at dense grids on irregular surfaces (e.g. the Earth’s topography) is computationally extremely demanding. However, we show that this task can be efficiently performed using an analytical continuation based on the gradient approach, provided that formulae for radial derivatives of the truncation coefficients are available. To demonstrate the new cap-modified spectral technique, we forward model the Earth’s degree-360 topography, obtaining near- and far-zone effects on gravity disturbances expanded up to degree 3600. The computation is carried out on the Earth’s surface and the results are validated against an independent spatial-domain Newtonian integration ((Formula presented.) RMS agreement). The new technique is expected to assist in mitigating the spectral filter problem of residual terrain modelling and in the efficient construction of full-scale global gravity maps of highest spatial resolution. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/68253 10.1007/s00190-018-1139-x Springer - Verlag restricted
spellingShingle Bucha, B.
Hirt, C.
Kuhn, Michael
Cap integration in spectral gravity forward modelling: near- and far-zone gravity effects via Molodensky’s truncation coefficients
title Cap integration in spectral gravity forward modelling: near- and far-zone gravity effects via Molodensky’s truncation coefficients
title_full Cap integration in spectral gravity forward modelling: near- and far-zone gravity effects via Molodensky’s truncation coefficients
title_fullStr Cap integration in spectral gravity forward modelling: near- and far-zone gravity effects via Molodensky’s truncation coefficients
title_full_unstemmed Cap integration in spectral gravity forward modelling: near- and far-zone gravity effects via Molodensky’s truncation coefficients
title_short Cap integration in spectral gravity forward modelling: near- and far-zone gravity effects via Molodensky’s truncation coefficients
title_sort cap integration in spectral gravity forward modelling: near- and far-zone gravity effects via molodensky’s truncation coefficients
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/68253