The combination and contribution of different gravity measurements in regional quasi-geoid determination based on spherical radial basis functions

<p>In this study, we investigate the optimal combination of local gravity observations and their contributions to the regional quasi-geoid model. The study area is located in Colorado, USA, with two types of regional data sets, namely terrestrial gravity data and airborne gravity data, available within the “1 cm geoid experiment”. The approach based on series expansions in terms of spherical radial basis functions (SRBF) is applied, which has been developed at DGFI-TUM in the last two decades. We use two different types of basis functions covering the same spectral domain separately for the terrestrial and the airborne measurements. The Shannon function is applied to the terrestrial data, and the Cubic Polynomial (CuP) function which has smoothing features is applied to the airborne data for filtering their high-frequency noise.</p><p>To assess the contributions of the regional terrestrial and airborne gravity data to the final quasi-geoid model, four solutions are compared, namely the combined solution, the terrestrial only, the airborne only, and finally the model only solution, i.e., only the global gravity model and the topographic model are used without any gravity data from regional measurements. By adding the terrestrial data to the GGM and the topographic model, the RMS error of the quasi-geoid model w.r.t the validation data (the mean solution of independent computations delivered by fourteen institutions from all over the world) drops from 4 to 1.8 cm, and it is further reduced to 1 cm by including the airborne data.</p>

From Hotine‒Koch integral to approximation by means of spherical radial basis functions

Задачу определения высот геоида по возмущениям силы тяжести в локальной области предлагается решать, заменяя традиционное интегрирование аппроксимацией с помощью сферических радиальных базисных функций (СРБФ). Предложены новые масштабирующие функции и вейвлеты Хотина‒Коха, использующие частотную характеристику оператора усечения ядра Хотина‒Коха, предложенную в ра- боте [1]. Представлены результаты проведённых численных экспериментов, продемонстрировавших высокую точность восстановления высот геоида по возмущениям силы тяжести

Regional gravity field refinement for (quasi-) geoid determination based on spherical radial basis functions in Colorado

This study presents a solution of the ‘1 cm Geoid Experiment’ (Colorado Experiment) using spherical radial basis functions (SRBFs). As the only group using SRBFs among the fourteen participated institutions from all over the world, we highlight the methodology of SRBFs in this paper. Detailed explanations are given regarding the settings of the four most important factors that influence the performance of SRBFs in gravity field modeling, namely (1) the choosing bandwidth, (2) the locations of the SRBFs, (3) the type of the SRBFs as well as (4) the extensions of the data zone for reducing the edge effect. Two types of basis functions covering the same spectral range are used for the terrestrial and the airborne measurements, respectively. The non-smoothing Shannon function is applied to the terrestrial data to avoid the loss of spectral information. The cubic polynomial (CuP) function which has smoothing features is applied to the airborne data as a low-pass filter for filtering the high-frequency noise. Although the idea of combining different SRBFs for different observations was proven in theory to be possible, it is applied to real data for the first time, in this study. The RMS error of our height anomaly result along the GSVS17 benchmarks w.r.t the validation data (which is the mean results of the other contributions in the ‘Colorado Experiment’) drops by 5% when combining the Shannon function for the terrestrial data and the CuP function for the airborne data, compared to those obtained by using the Shannon function for both the two data sets. This improvement indicates the validity and benefits of using different SRBFs for different observation types. Global gravity model (GGM), topographic model, the terrestrial gravity data, as well as the airborne gravity data are combined, and the contribution of each data set to the final solution is discussed. By adding the terrestrial data to the GGM and the topographic model, the RMS error of the height anomaly result w.r.t the validation data drops from 4 to 1.8 cm, and it is further reduced to 1 cm by including the airborne data. Comparisons with the mean results of all the contributions show that our height anomaly and geoid height solutions at the GSVS17 benchmarks have an RMS error of 1.0 cm and 1.3 cm, respectively; and our height anomaly results give an RMS value of 1.6 cm in the whole study area, which are all the smallest among the participants.

Determination of the Regularization Parameter to Combine Heterogeneous Observations in Regional Gravity Field Modeling

Various types of heterogeneous observations can be combined within a parameter estimation process using spherical radial basis functions (SRBFs) for regional gravity field refinement. In this process, regularization is in most cases inevitable, and choosing an appropriate value for the regularization parameter is a crucial issue. This study discusses the drawbacks of two frequently used methods for choosing the regularization parameter, which are the L-curve method and the variance component estimation (VCE). To overcome their drawbacks, two approaches for the regularization parameter determination are proposed, which combine the L-curve method and VCE. The first approach, denoted as “VCE-Lc”, starts with the calculation of the relative weights between the observation techniques by means of VCE. Based on these weights, the L-curve method is applied to determine the regularization parameter. In the second approach, called “Lc-VCE”, the L-curve method determines first the regularization parameter, and it is set to be fixed during the calculation of the relative weights between the observation techniques from VCE. To evaluate and compare the performance of the two proposed methods with the L-curve method and VCE, all these four methods are applied in six study cases using four types of simulated observations in Europe, and their modeling results are compared with the validation data. The RMS errors (w.r.t the validation data) obtained by VCE-Lc and Lc-VCE are smaller than those obtained from the L-curve method and VCE in all the six cases. VCE-Lc performs the best among these four tested methods, no matter if using SRBFs with smoothing or non-smoothing features. These results prove the benefits of the two proposed methods for regularization parameter determination when different data sets are to be combined.

The use of different spherical radial basis functions to combine terrestrial and airborne measurements for regional gravity field refinement

<p>The objective of this study is the combination of different types of basis functions applied separately to different kinds of gravity observations. We use two types of regional data sets: terrestrial gravity data and airborne gravity data, covering an area of about 500 km × 800 km in Colorado, USA. These data are available within the “1 cm geoid experiment” (also known as the “Colorado Experiment”). We apply an approach for regional gravity modeling based on series expansions in terms of spherical radial basis functions (SRBF). Two types of basis functions covering the same spectral domain are used, one for the terrestrial data and another one for the airborne measurements. To be more specific, the non-smoothing Shannon function is applied to the terrestrial data to avoid the loss of spectral information. The Cubic Polynomial (CuP) function is applied to the airborne data as a low-pass filter, and the smoothing features of this type of SRBF are used for filtering the high-frequency noise in the airborne data. In the parameter estimation procedure, these two modeling parts are combined to calculate the quasi-geoid.</p><p>The performance of our regional quasi-geoid model is validated by comparing the results with the mean solution of independent computations delivered by fourteen institutions from all over the world. The comparison shows that the low-pass filtering of the airborne gravity data by the CuP function improves the model accuracy by 5% compared to that using the Shannon function. This result also makes evident the advantage of combining different SRBFs covering the same spectral domain for different types of observations.</p>

Regularization methods for the combination of heterogeneous observations using spherical radial basis functions

Various types of heterogeneous observations can be combined within a parameter estimation process using spherical radial basis functions (SRBF) for regional gravity field refinement. However, this process is in most cases ill-posed, and thus, regularization is indispensable. We discuss two frequently used methods for choosing the regularization parameter which are the L-curve method and variance component estimation (VCE). Based on these two methods, we propose two new approaches for the regularization parameter determination, which combine the L-curve method and VCE. The first approach, denoted as ‘VCE + L-curve method’, starts with the calculation of the relative weights between the observation techniques by means of VCE. Based on these weights the L-curve method is applied to determine the regularization parameter. In the second approach, called ‘L-curve method + VCE’, the L-curve method determines first the regularization parameter and it is set to be fixed during the calculation of the relative weights between the observation techniques from VCE. These methods are investigated based on two different estimation concepts for combining various observation techniques. All the methods are applied and compared in six study cases using four types of observations in Europe. The results show that the ‘VCE + L-curve method’ delivers the best results in all the six cases, no matter using SRBFs with smoothing or non-smoothing features. The ‘L-curve method + VCE’ also gives rather good results, generally outperforming the cases just using the L-curve method or VCE. Therefore, we conclude that the newly proposed methods are decent and stable for regularization parameter determination when different data sets are combined and can be recommended regardless of the type of SRBFs used.

Earth's surface mass transport derived from GRACE, evaluated by GPS, ICESat, hydrological modeling and altimetry satellite orbits

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) has delivered the most accurate quantification of global mass variations with monthly temporal resolution on large spatial scales. Future gravity missions will take advantage of improved measurement technologies such as enhanced orbit configurations and tracking systems as well as reduced temporal aliasing errors and latencies. In order to facilitate the usage of sub-monthly to daily innovate models, mass equivalent representations are computed. In addition, non-conventional processing techniques based on spherical radial basis functions (RBF) and mascons will give the ability to compute models in regional and global representations as well. The present study compares for the first time a complete global series of daily mass equivalent solutions obtained by the RBF method with conventional solutions in order to quantify recent ice-mass changes. We further compare the ice-induced crustal deformations due to the dynamic loading of the crustal layer with the Global Positioning System (GPS) uplift measurements along Greenland's coastline. Available mass change estimates based on ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite) laser altimetry measurements both in Greenland and Antarctica are used to asses the GRACE results. A comparison of GRACE time series with hydrological modeling for various basin extensions reveals overall high correlation to surface and groundwater storage compartments. The forward computation of satellite orbits for altimetry satellites such as Envisat, Jason-1 and Jason-2 compares the performance of GRACE time variable gravity fields with models including time variability, such as EIGEN-6S4.