Combining EGM2008 and SRTM/DTM2006.0 residual terrain model data to improve quasigeoid computations in mountainous areas devoid of gravity data |
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| Authors: | C Hirt W E Featherstone U Marti |
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| Institution: | (1) Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA |
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| Abstract: | A global geopotential model, like EGM2008, is not capable of representing the high-frequency components of Earth’s gravity
field. This is known as the omission error. In mountainous terrain, omission errors in EGM2008, even when expanded to degree
2,190, may reach amplitudes of 10 cm and more for height anomalies. The present paper proposes the utilisation of high-resolution
residual terrain model (RTM) data for computing estimates of the omission error in rugged terrain. RTM elevations may be constructed
as the difference between the SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) elevation model and the DTM2006.0 spherical harmonic
topographic expansion. Numerical tests, carried out in the German Alps with a precise gravimetric quasigeoid model (GCG05)
and GPS/levelling data as references, demonstrate that RTM-based omission error estimates improve EGM2008 height anomaly differences
by 10 cm in many cases. The comparisons of EGM2008-only height anomalies and the GCG05 model showed 3.7 cm standard deviation
after a bias-fit. Applying RTM omission error estimates to EGM2008 reduces the standard deviation to 1.9 cm which equates
to a significant improvement rate of 47%. Using GPS/levelling data strongly corroborates these findings with an improvement
rate of 49%. The proposed RTM approach may be of practical value to improve quasigeoid determination in mountainous areas
without sufficient regional gravity data coverage, e.g., in parts of Asia, South America or Africa. As a further application,
RTM omission error estimates will allow refined validation of global gravity field models like EGM2008 from GPS/levelling
data. |
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