First Observations with the New Dual Sphere Superconducting Gravimeter Osg-073 at Metsähovi, Finland

The new dual sphere superconducting gravimeter (SG) OSG-073 was installed in the Metsähovi Geodetic Observatory in February 2014. Its two gravity sensors are side by side, not one on top of another as in most earlier dual sensor installations. One sensor is the standard iGrav™ SG, with a lightweight sphere (5 grams) which is nearly drift-free. The second sensor uses a heavy 20-gram sphere which gives ultra low noise and a much higher quality factor Q.

We present time domain observations of the first months, and estimate drift rates after the initial exponential drift. We have determined the transfer functions. Calibration factors were obtained using parallel registrations with the FG5X-221 absolute gravimeter of the FGI.

We show selected free oscillation spectra from the SG, and seismic data obtained at Metsähovi with the Nanometrics Trillium 120P broadband seismometer of the Institute of Seismology (University of Helsinki). The noise level of the data is then compared with the New Low Noise Model NLNM.

The results with the dual sphere SG can be compared with parallel observations with the SG T020. This 20-year old instrument is situated in the same room at a distance of 2 metres from the dual-sphere SG.