The GOCE User Toolbox (GUT) and Tutorial

Abstract:

The GOCE User Toolbox (GUT) is an integrated suite of tools for the analysis and use of GOCE Level 2 gravity products. GUT supports applications in geodesy, oceanography and solid earth physics. The accompanying GUT tutorial provides information and guidance on how to use the toolbox for a variety of applications within each of these domains. An important motivation for the development of GUT has been the desire that users should be able to exploit the GOCE gravity products to calculate derived products relevant to their particular domains without necessarily needing to understand the technicalities of particular geodetic concepts and algorithms. As such, GUT is also suitable for use as an aid to the teaching of geophysics. A comprehensive and up-to-date set of a-priori data and models are supplied with the toolbox, together with a range of pre-defined workflows, allowing the user to immediately calculate useful geophysical quantities. The toolbox is supported by The GUT Algorithm Description and User Guide and The GUT Install Guide. GUT is cross-platform and may be used on Windows PCs, UNIX/Linux workstations and Macs.

GUT version 2.2 was released in April 2014 and, besides some bug-fixes, the capability to calculate the simple Bouguer anomaly was added. Recently, GUT version 3 has been released. Through a collaborative effort between the relevant scientific communities, this version has built on earlier releases by further extending the functionality of the toolbox within the fields of geodesy, oceanography and solid earth physics. Additions include the ability to work directly with gravity gradients, anisotropic diffusive filtering, and the computation of Bouguer and isostatic gravity anomalies. The interface between the user and the toolbox has also been greatly improved and GUT version 3 now includes an attractive and intuitive Graphical User Interface. An associated GUT VCM tool for analysing the GOCE variance covariance matrices is also available.