Comparison of Gravitational Effects of Earth's Lithosphere Calculated from GOCE Satellite Gravity Data and LITHO1.0 Global Geophysical Model

Abstract:

Nowadays, the increasing availability of satellite-measured gravity data, as provided by GOCE satellite mission, jointly with even more reliable geophysical models of Earth's crust and mantle has aroused renewed interest in computation of theoretical gravity effects up to global scale from geological models, directly comparable with satellite measurements.

The computation of theoretical gravity effects well-suited for investigating GOCE gravity data, requires the use of ellipsoidal shaped models of the Earth interior particularly detailed from the crust down to the uppermost mantle, with a spatial resolution of 200 km or better. Our approach consists therefore in working out a new numerical calculation method of the complete gravity field - gravity vector components and gravity gradients - by Gauss-Legendre quadrature using ellipsoidal mass elements well-suited for ellipsoidal shaped bodies.

Results of Earth's gravity field calculations carried out using LITHO1.0, 1° tessellated lithosphere model (Pasyanos et al., 2014) are presented and discussed. The results are then compared with GOCE gravity data obtained by averaging over few years of measurement.

Pasyanos, M. E., T. G. Masters, G. Laske, and Z. Ma (2014), LITHO1.0: An updated crust and lithospheric model of the Earth, J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth, 119, 2153–2173, doi:10.1002/2013JB010626.