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High-Resolution Global Gravity Model EIGEN-CG01C

The document presents the EIGEN-CG01C model, a high-resolution global gravity field model that combines data from the CHAMP and GRACE satellite missions with surface data, achieving significant accuracy improvements in geoid heights and gravity anomalies. The model is complete to degree/order 360 and resolves half-wavelengths of 55 km, with an overall accuracy of 20 cm and 5 mgal. The methodology involves a special band-limited combination method to ensure a smooth transition between satellite and surface data contributions.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
19 views13 pages

High-Resolution Global Gravity Model EIGEN-CG01C

The document presents the EIGEN-CG01C model, a high-resolution global gravity field model that combines data from the CHAMP and GRACE satellite missions with surface data, achieving significant accuracy improvements in geoid heights and gravity anomalies. The model is complete to degree/order 360 and resolves half-wavelengths of 55 km, with an overall accuracy of 20 cm and 5 mgal. The methodology involves a special band-limited combination method to ensure a smooth transition between satellite and surface data contributions.

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ZAKARI DANLADI
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

ISSN 1610-0956

Scientific Technical Report STR 06/07 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam


A High Resolution Global Gravity Field Model Combining CHAMP and
GRACE Satellite Mission and Surface Data: EIGEN-CG01C
Ch. Reigber1, P. Schwintzer1(^), R. Stubenvoll1, R. Schmidt1, F. Flechtner1, U. Meyer1, R. König1,
H. Neumayer1, Ch. Förste1, F. Barthelmes1, S.Y. Zhu1, G. Balmino2, R. Biancale2, J.-M. Lemoine2,
H. Meixner3, J.C. Raimondo3
1
GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ), Department 1 ‘Geodesy and Remote
Sensing’, Telegrafenberg A17, 14473 Potsdam, Germany,
foer@[Link]
2
Groupe de Recherche de Géodésie Spatiale (GRGS), 18 Avenue Edouard Belin,
31400 Toulouse, France
[Link]@[Link]
3
Teleorbit GmbH, 83623 Dietramszell/Linden, Germany

Abstract:

The striking improvements in long- to medium-wavelengths gravity field recovery achieved with
GPS-CHAMP and GPS-GRACE high-low and GRACE K-band range low-low satellite-to-satellite
tracking prompted us to combine the satellite data with surface data from altimetry over the oceans
and gravimetry over the continents to generate a new, high resolution global gravity field model:
EIGEN-CG01C. The model is complete to degree/order 360 in terms of spherical harmonics and
resolves half-wavelengths of 55 km in the geoid and gravity anomaly fields. A special band-limited
combination method has been applied in order to preserve the high accuracy from the satellite data
in the lower frequency band of the geopotential and to allow for a smooth transition to the high-
frequency band, dominated by the surface data. Compared to pre-CHAMP/GRACE global high-
resolution gravity field models, the accuracy was improved by one order of magnitude to 4 cm and
0.5 mgal in terms of geoid heights and gravity anomalies, respectively, at a spatial resolution of 200
km half-wavelength. The overall accuracy at degree/order 360 is estimated to be 20 cm and 5 mgal,
respectively, and benefits significantly from recently released new gravity anomaly compilations
over the polar regions. In general, the accuracy over the oceans is better than over the continents
reflecting the higher quality of the available surface data.

Key Words:
Earth gravity field model, global gravity field recovery, CHAMP mission, GRACE mission,
Surface gravity data

Scientific Technical Report STR 06/07 1 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam


1 Introduction

Since the launch of the CHAMP satellite in 2000 and the twin satellites GRACE in 2002 with its
dedicated payload for global gravity field recovery, satellite-only gravity field models became
available, which resolve the geoid with an accuracy of 1 cm for half-wavelengths down to 1000 km
using CHAMP and down to 270 km using GRACE data. The most recent CHAMP and GRACE
gravity models, generated at GFZ Potsdam, are EIGEN-CHAMP03S, an improved version of
EIGEN-3p (Reigber et al., 2004a) and EIGEN-GRACE02S (Reigber et al., 2004b), respectively. An
accuracy improvement by a factor of 30 (CHAMP) and by more than two orders of magnitude
(GRACE) has been achieved at the given levels of spatial resolution with respect to the latest pre-
CHAMP satellite-only gravity model GRIM5-S1 (Biancale et al., 2000).
Whereas the long- to medium wavelengths features of the Earth’s gravity field are
homogeneously resolved from space, the shorter wavelengths are derived from surface data. These
data, compiled from satellite altimetry and ship-borne gravimetry over the oceans, and air-borne and
terrestrial gravimetry over land and the north polar region, provide apart from Antarctica an almost
complete global coverage if condensed to mean block values of a regular equal-angular 30' x 30'
grid. Due to inconsistencies between the various data sets and regionally varying accuracies, these
data contain imprecise long- to medium-wavelengths gravity information but, when properly
combined with the CHAMP and GRACE satellite gravity models, extend the resolution of the
global model to 55 km half-wavelength. Such a combination that resulted in the broadly used model
EGM96 (Lemoine et al., 1998) has been performed years ago based on the pre-CHAMP satellite-
only model EGM96S.
Here, a new high-resolution combination and solution is accomplished which, compared to
EGM96, benefits in its long- to medium wavelength part from the unprecedented performance of
the CHAMP and GRACE models and it is partly improved in the higher frequency part thanks to
the recently released more complete and updated surface data compilation.

2 CHAMP and GRACE satellite data and processing

CHAMP-GPS high-low satellite-to-satellite tracking and accelerometer data collected over a


period of 860 days, from October 2000 through June 2003, were processed in the classical orbit
perturbation analysis approach (Reigber et al., 2003) to solve for the gravitational coefficients of a
spherical harmonic expansion of the geopotential complete to degree/order 120 (except C00) and
within CHAMP-resonant orders up to a maximum degree 140. Stabilization of the normal equation
system has been applied for all unknowns with a degree higher than 60. This was done by adding
pseudo-observations to the normal equation system for all unknowns of a degree higher then 60
with a value of zero and a weight reciprocally proportional to Kaula's degree variance model
(Kaula, 1966). The resulting CHAMP-only global gravity field model is called EIGEN-
CHAMP03S. EIGEN-CHAMP03S is an improved version of the preliminary solution EIGEN-3p
described in Reigber et al. (2004a). For the new solution, the reprocessing of the CHAMP data to
account for the failure in the radial accelerometer’s axis has been completed for the entire 860
period.
GRACE mission data, i.e. GRACE-GPS high-low satellite-to-satellite tracking data,
accelerometer data and, K-band intersatellite range rate data being most important for the much
higher performance with respect to CHAMP, have been used to generate a normal equation system
for the gravitational coefficients complete to degree/order 150 (except C00). The normal equation
system is based on the one used for the EIGEN-GRACE02S GRACE-only gravity field solution
(Reigber et al., 2004b), derived from 110 days of GRACE data collected during the five months
Aug., Nov. 2002 and April, May, Aug. 2003. This normal equation system has been augmented by
another 90 days’ worth of data from April/May 2002 and Oct./Nov. 2003 to yield a 200 days
GRACE-only solution which is called here for convenience EIGEN-GRACE02S + 90 d.
Stabilization of the normal equation system has been applied as mentioned above, but for all
unknowns with a degree higher than 100.
Finally, the CHAMP and GRACE normal equation systems have been added together to form the
basis for the combination with the surface data. The overall CHAMP/GRACE satellite-only solution

Scientific Technical Report STR 06/07 2 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam


following from the CHAMP/GRACE normal equation system and obtained after stabilization in the
same manner as for GRACE-only is called here EIGEN-CG01S. Thanks to the near-polar orbits of
CHAMP (inclination I = 87°) and GRACE (I = 89°) observations extend over all latitudes with a
negligible polar gap.

Figure 1 shows the signal and


error amplitudes in terms of geoid
heights per degree of the solved-
for spherical harmonic coefficients
for the CHAMP-only, GRACE-
only and the CHAMP plus
GRACE gravity field solutions.
The error degree amplitudes are
the formal ones, i.e. computed
from the coefficients’ standard
deviations as resulting from the
adjustment. It can be seen from
Figure 1 that the signal power of
the CHAMP solution significantly
diminishes beyond degree 60,
whereas the GRACE solution
resolves fully the gravity field up
to degree/order 100. The higher
degree coefficients are affected by
Fig. 1. Signal (thick lines) and error (thin lines) amplitudes per the stabilization of the normal
degree in terms of geoid heights for the gravity models EIGEN-
equation system. Looking at the
CHAMP03S (green), EIGEN-GRACE02S+90d (red) and
EIGEN-CG01S (blue), errors are the formal ones as resulting
signal and error degree amplitudes,
from the adjustment. it becomes clear that it’s basicly
GRACE data that determines the
gravity field model in the long- to
medium-wavelength range.
Figure 2 shows the signal degree
amplitudes, again in terms of geoid
heights, for the CHAMP plus GRACE
satellite-only gravity field solution and
the pre-CHAMP combination solution
EGM96, and the difference degree
amplitudes between both solutions.
EGM96 is mainly reflecting the
altimetric and gravimetric surface data
information content, at least beyond
degree 70, where only these data enter
into the solution. Inspecting the
difference degree amplitudes one can
therefore deduce that for degrees
higher than 110, where the difference
degree amplitudes attain a minimum at
the 3 cm level, the CHAMP + GRACE
Fig. 2. Signal amplitudes per degree in terms of geoid
data contribution is inferior to that of heights for the gravity models EIGEN-CG01S (blue) and
the surface data. EGM96 (green) and the degree amplitudes of the
differences between both models (red).

Scientific Technical Report STR 06/07 3 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam


3 Surface gravimetry data and their processing

Fig. 3. Coverage of surface data sets 1 through 6 (cf. text); white lines mark used ship gravimetry data
(data set 7) over water depths less than 2000 m; white areas are not covered with surface data.

The following surface gravimetry data were used for the combination with the CHAMP and
GRACE satellites’ normal equations (s. Figure 3 for coverage):
(1) Arctic Gravity Project (ArcGP) gravity anomalies (Forsberg, Kenyon 2004), for regions with
ϕ $ 64°,
(2) NRCan gravity anomalies (Véronneau 2003, pers. comm..), covering North America,
(3) AWI (Studinger 1988) and LDO (Bell et al., 1999) gravity anomalies over two small areas of
Antarctica and, in the case of AWI, adjacent sea ice,
(4) NGA (National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, formerly NIMA) altimetric gravity
anomalies over the ocean, including standard deviations,
(5) Geoid undulations over the oceans by using CLS01 altimetric Sea Surface Heights
(Hernandez et al., 2001) and the Sea Surface Topography from the ECCO simulation
(Stammer et al., 2002),
(6) NGA terrestrial gravity anomalies (if not covered by data sets 1 to 3) including standard
deviations, almost worldwide continental coverage, except for Antarctica and some smaller
data gaps, and
(7) NGA ship-borne gravity anomalies over water depths less than 2000 m.

All data sets are available in their original form or after averaging as block mean values on an
equal angular 30' x 30' grid, except data sets 5 and 7 which are provided with a 1° x 1° resolution.
The NGA data sets (Kenyon, Pavlis 1997) are those already incorporated in the EGM96 solution.
In order to conserve computer resources, the normal equation system for the unknown spherical
harmonic coefficients were generated from these data in two essentially different ways for the lower
frequency part (up to degree/order 120) and the higher frequency part (up to degree/order 359),
respectively: For the lower frequency part, a rigorous normal equation system with individual data
weighting was set up using geoid undulations (data set 5) over the oceans and gravity anomalies
(data sets 1 to 3 and 6) elsewhere. Data out of data set 4 were used to fill the gaps in near-coastal
areas. Shipborne gravimetry (data set 7) was allowed to overlap with the altimeter derived geoid
undulations and NGA gravity anomalies, in order to strengthen the transition between geoid

Scientific Technical Report STR 06/07 4 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam


undulations and gravity anomalies. For the higher frequency part a block-diagonal normal equation
system using gravity anomalies only (data sets 1 to 4 and 6) with a latitude-dependent block area
weighting was created (Gruber 2001). In both cases EIGEN-GRACE02 derived gravity anomalies
were used to fill the blocks (8.6 %) not covered by surface data.
To generate the normals for the lower frequency part, the 30' x 30' gridded data were averaged to
form 1° x 1° block mean values. These were then filtered to suppress the contribution from the
spectral gravitational constituents higher than degree 120. The unknowns in the resulting normal
equation system took into account spherical harmonic coefficients up to degree/order 140 to avoid
aliasing and cut-off errors induced by the data filtering. The data were evaluated (as given) on the
Earth surface, i.e. no downward continuation due to topographic heights became necessary
(Molodensky approach).
The block-diagonal normal equation system was set up for all coefficients up to maximum
degree/order 359 using the 30' x 30' block mean values downward continued to the ellipsoid and
reduced for topographic masses.
Prior to the data evaluation, all data sets were transformed to a common reference ellipsoid and
the correction for the quadratic terms of the normal gravity gradient and ellipsoidal corrections were
applied to the gravity anomalies that are given in spherical approximation (Rapp, Pavlis 1990). The
coefficients for degree 360, which are not obtainable from a 30' x 30' data grid in the block-diagonal
approach, are computed from the same data by numerical integration.

Fig. 4. Signal (thick lines) and error (thin lines) amplitudes per degree in terms of geoid heights for the
gravity models EIGEN-CG01C (blue) and EGM96 (red) and the degree amplitudes of the differences
between both models (black), the errors are the a posteriori calibrated ones.

Scientific Technical Report STR 06/07 5 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam


Fig. 5. Geographical distribution of gravity anomalies (left, in mgal) and geoid undulations (right, in m) derived
from the high-resolution model EIGEN-CG01C.

4 Combination and solution strategy

The CHAMP+GRACE normal equation system (complete to degree/order 150, no stabilization)


was added to the full surface data normal equation system (complete to degree/order 140) in a way
that the coefficients up to degree 70 and from degree 110 onwards were kept separate in the
resulting normal equation system, i.e. only contributions for the coefficients with degree 71 through
109 were allowed to overlap. Thereby, the surface data normal equation system, initially weighted
roughly following the estimated data accuracy, was strongly downweighted by an empirically found
optimal factor relative to the satellite-only system. The resulting normal equation system then was
solved by inversion taking for the long-wavelength part up to degree 70 the solution coming from
the CHAMP+GRACE contributing and from degree 110 to 118 only the solution coming from the
surface data contribution. With this procedure, long-wavelength errors in the surface data are not
allowed to affect the solution, and the high quality of the CHAMP and GRACE satellite-only
gravity field model is kept up to the limit of resolution around degree 110 with a smooth transition
within the overlapping part of both normal equation systems.
The solution obtained from the block-diagonal system was then used to extend the spherical
harmonic coefficients from degree 118 to degree 359 disregarding the longer wavelength
coefficients in the block-diagonal solution, and finally the degree 360 coefficients (from integration)
were added for completion, although a drop in power has been realized for this degree compared to
the preceding ones.

Fig. 6. Gravity anomalies (in mgal) over Europe from the CHAMP/GRACE satellite-only model EIGEN-CG01S
(left) and the combined high-resolution model EIGEN-CG01C (right).

Scientific Technical Report STR 06/07 6 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam


5 Result: global gravity field model EIGEN-CG01C

Figure 4 shows the signal and error degree amplitudes of the resulting degree/order 360 EIGEN-
CG01C model and for comparison those of the EGM96 model, as well as the difference degree
amplitudes between both models. The EIGEN combination solution differs from EGM96 due to the
only use of CHAMP and GRACE data instead of the 41 satellites used for EGM96, and, with
regards to the surface data, due to the mix of geoid undulations (CLS minus ECCO) and gravity
anomalies (up to degree 118) causing the step in the difference degree amplitudes at this boundary;
at higher frequencies, EIGEN-CG01C benefits from the new surface data of the Arctic Gravity
Project, over North-America and Antarctica which replace older NGA data and close former data
gaps, respectively.
The EIGEN-CG01C coefficients’ standard deviations as coming out of the adjustment have been
calibrated aposteriori in a degree-dependent way in order to produce realistic accuracy estimates.
The error degree amplitudes in Figure 4 reflect the huge improvement in accuracy for the long- to
medium-wavelengths spectral band thanks to the contribution of the new satellite data.
As an illustration of the high resolution of the EIGEN-CG01C gravity field model, Figure 5
shows the gravity anomalies and the geoid undulations, respectively, resulting from the model’s
spherical harmonic coefficients, and Figure 6 highligths the contrast in gravity field resolution over
Europe between the satellite-only model EIGEN-CG01S and the combined model EIGEN-CG01C.

Fig. 7. Amplitudes per degree (lower curves) and degree-wise accumulated (upper curves) in terms of
geoid heights of the differences EIGEN-CG01C vs. EGM96 (black) and GGM02C (blue),
respectively, and of the EIGEN-CG01C calibrated errors (red).

Scientific Technical Report STR 06/07 7 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam


Fig. 8. Same as Figure 7 but in terms of gravity anomalies.

6 Model evaluation

The overall differences in the spectral domain between the EIGEN-CG01C and the EGM96
model amount to 45 cm and 6 mgal in terms of geoid undulations and gravity anomalies,
respectively, as can be seen from Figures 7 and 8. Compared to University of Texas’ model
GGM02C (Tapley et al. 2005) which is a combination solution of GRACE satellite and NGA
surface data but complete only to degree/order 200, the differences amount to 15 cm and 3 mgal,
respectively, up to the degree of resolution. As the three models are not independent because of
having a considerable amount of GRACE data and/or surface data in common, the comparisons
should not be over-interpreted. However, the one to two orders of magnitude accuracy
improvements from the pre-CHAMP model EGM96 to the new models being visible in Figures 7
and 8 in the long-wavelength part are clearly demonstrated (Reigber et al. 2004b). The difference
degree amplitudes between the EIGEN model and the EGM96 and GGM02C models nearly
coincide for degrees higher than 109 because nearly the same surface data normal equation systems
entered into both external models.
The comparison in the spectral domain doesn’t provide a regional discrimination of the model
characteristics. Therefore the geographical distribution of the gravity anomaly differences between
EIGEN-CG01C and EGM96 is given in Figure 9, representing only the long- to medium-
wavelength part (half-wavelengths larger than 200 km, or spherical harmonic degrees 2 to 100), and

Scientific Technical Report STR 06/07 8 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam


in Figure 10 for the remaining higher frequency part (half-wavelengths in between 200 km and 55
km, spherical harmonic degrees 101 to 360).

Fig. 9. Gravity anomaly differences between EIGEN-CG01C and EGM96 gravity model for half-wavelengths
larger than 200 km (spher. harm. degrees 2 to 100) in units of mgal.

Figure 9 shows the areas where CHAMP/GRACE satellite data contribute most in improving the
global gravity field model: the polar caps, previously not resolved by satellite-only models, and the
continents of Africa, Asia and South America which are not well and inhomogeneously covered by
gravimetric data. Figure 10 mainly reveals the impact of the new gravity anomaly data from the
Arctic Gravity Project and over the two regions of Antarctica. Also larger discrepancies appear over
the areas where surface data are missing, because these were filled-in in different ways in the two
models.

degree global oceans Continents


2 - 360 6.8 mgal 3.9 mgal 11.0 mgal
2 - 100 4.1 mgal 2.0 mgal 6.8 mgal
101 - 360 5.5 mgal 3.5 mgal 8.6 mgal

Table 1. Weighted (cosine of latitude) root mean square


(wrms) of gravity anomaly differences between EIGEN-
CG01C and EGM96 as a function of spherical harmonic
degree range.

Table 1 gives the statistics of the differences in terms of gravity anomalies between the two high-
resolution global gravity field models for the lower (degree 2 to 100) and higher (degree 101 to 360)
frequency part as well as for the entire spectrum.

The differences over the oceans are on average lower than over the continents due to the
homogeneous coverage with satellite altimeter data.
An independent comparison with external data can be made using geoid heights determined point-
wise by GPS positioning and levelling (GPS-Levelling). Table 2 shows the results for the two

Scientific Technical Report STR 06/07 9 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam


models under considerations using GPS-Levelling points from the USA (Milbert, 1998), Canada
(Véronneau, pers. comm. 2003, Natural Resources Canada, GPS on BMs file, update Feb. 2003,)
and Europe (Ihde et al., 2002). The improvement in the new EIGEN-model is visible, but not so
dramatic because of the large omission error for spherical harmonic degrees higher than 360,
common to both models when comparing point values.

Gravity Model GPS-Levelling Geoid Heights


USA Canada Europe
(6169) (1930) (186)
EIGEN-CG01C 44 cm 35 cm 41 cm
EGM96 47 cm 39 cm 45 cm

Table 2. Root mean square (rms) about mean of GPS-


Levelling minus model derived geoid heights (number of
points in parentheses).

Fig. 10. Gravity anomaly differences between EIGEN-CG01C and EGM96 gravity models for half-
wavelengths shorter than 200 km (spher. harm. degrees 101 to 360) in units of mgal.

7 Conclusions

On the basis of CHAMP and GRACE satellite gravity field recovery results, a new high-
resolution global gravity field model to degree/order 360 has been developed, incorporating surface
data including newly available or improved data sets (Arctic, Antarctica, North-America, altimetry):
EIGEN-CG01C. Compared to the pre-CHAMP high-resolution model EGM96, the long- to
medium-wavelength (λ/2 > 200 km) gravity and geoid accuracy now being 0.5 mgal and 4 cm,
respectively, was improved by about one order of magnitude, thanks to GRACE’s contribution.

Scientific Technical Report STR 06/07 10 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam


The average accuracy of EIGEN-CG01C up to degree/order 360 (λ/2 = 55 km) is estimated to be
on the 5 mgal, 20 cm level, respectively, mainly reflecting the quality of the surface data. In
particular, over the high latitude areas EIGEN-CG01C benefits from the better coverage due to the
released gravity anomaly compilations. In general, the accuracy over the oceans is better than over
the continents (cf. Table 1).
The new model may be applied as a background model in regional geoid modelling and for
geodynamic interpretation over a wide range of scales.

Acknowledgements. The German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports the
GRACE and CHAMP projects within the GEOTECHNOLOGIEN geoscientific R+D programme
under grants 03F0326A and 50EP9587A. On the French side the research was supported by the
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES).

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Scientific Technical Report STR 06/07 12 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam

Common questions

Powered by AI

The CHAMP+GRACE combined solution manages long-wavelength errors in gravity field models by crafting a normal equation system where coefficients for long-wavelength components (up to degree 70) are derived primarily from the high-quality satellite data contribution. This approach prevents errors inherent in surface data from influencing the final solution. The solution seamlessly transitions between satellite-derived solutions and those utilizing surface data at higher degrees to maximize the accuracy and reliability of the gravity field representation .

Stabilization in the normal equation systems for gravity field models like EIGEN-CG01S is crucial for mitigating numerical instability and ensuring reliable solutions. It involves adjusting the equations to account only for unknowns at higher degrees, specifically degrees over 100 in the case of the GRACE data. This ensures that the solution is not overly influenced by errors or noise in higher-degree coefficients, which tend to be less accurate, resulting in a smoother and more accurate representation of the gravity field .

The latitude-dependent block area weighting is significant in EIGEN-CG01C calculations because it ensures that data from different latitudes are appropriately accounted for, reflecting the Earth's curvature. This weighting enables the model to maintain accuracy across the globe by balancing the contributions from regions with varying spatial coverage, enhancing consistency in gravity anomaly representation across all latitudes .

The EIGEN-CG01C model introduced substantial improvements over the EGM96, particularly in long- to medium-wavelength gravity and geoid accuracy, which improved by an order of magnitude to approximately 0.5 mgal for gravity anomalies and 4 cm for geoid undulations. These improvements are mainly attributed to the new satellite data, CHAMP and GRACE, which significantly enhanced resolution and accuracy, especially in high latitude areas where previous models were lacking .

The latitude-dependent block area weighting in the EIGEN-GRACE02 gravity field solution adjusts the representation of gravity anomalies so that areas with varying latitudes are appropriately weighted, taking into account the Earth's spherical shape. It ensures a more balanced and accurate processing of gravity data, which is especially key when filling blocks not covered by over 8.6% missing surface data .

In the EIGEN-CG01C model, gravity field resolution over oceanic areas tends to be more accurate compared to continental areas due to the homogeneous coverage provided by satellite altimeter data. Ocean areas benefit from consistent satellite data acquisition, leading to reduced errors and higher resolution. In contrast, continental regions often experience more variability in data quality and coverage, influenced by the heterogeneous distribution of surface data, which can cause lower resolution and slightly increased errors in gravity anomaly representation .

The utilization of Arctic Gravity Project data significantly impacts the EIGEN-CG01C model by enhancing its accuracy and resolution over high-latitude areas where data were previously sparse. This newly available data replaces outdated datasets, resolving former data gaps and reducing uncertainties in these regions. As a result, the EIGEN-CG01C model achieves a more precise mapping of gravity anomalies and geoid undulations, leading to a globally consistent and improved global gravity field representation, building on the strengths of both satellite and new surface data contributions .

The error degree amplitudes for EIGEN-GRACE02S+90d and EIGEN-CG01S reflect the stabilization applied during their computation. For EIGEN-GRACE02S+90d, stabilization affected only degrees higher than 100, while for EIGEN-CG01S, similar stabilization techniques were applied to CHAMP and GRACE data combined. EIGEN-GRACE02S+90d relies solely on GRACE data, providing better resolution up to degree/order 100 due to its focus on GRACE-only data, this results in a smaller error amplitude in the long- to medium-wavelength range compared to the CHAMP-only model used in EIGEN-CG01S .

The CHAMP and GRACE satellite missions significantly influence the EIGEN-CG01C gravity model's superiority due to their precise and comprehensive data collection. GRACE, with its near-polar orbit and superior accuracy for long- to medium-wavelength ranges, offers a remarkable improvement in resolving gravity field variations, enhancing the model’s accuracy compared to previous models like EGM96. CHAMP complements GRACE by extending coverage and providing additional data for stability and validation, allowing EIGEN-CG01C to achieve enhanced resolution and accuracy over previous models .

The integration of surface data with satellite data in high-resolution gravity models like EIGEN-CG01C enhances both resolution and reliability by providing additional constraints and complementing data gaps that satellites alone may not cover. Surface data, particularly in areas where satellite altimetry may be limited, bring in detailed regional information, strengthening the model's ability to represent accurate geoid undulations and gravity anomalies across various scales. This collaborative data approach allows EIGEN-CG01C to better capture variations in Earth's gravity, especially in continental areas and high latitudes where satellite data collection has been less comprehensive .

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