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GOCO05c: A New Combined Gravity Field Model Based on Full Normal Equations and Regionally Varying Weighting

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Abstract

GOCO05c is a gravity field model computed as a combined solution of a satellite-only model and a global data set of gravity anomalies. It is resolved up to degree and order 720. It is the first model applying regionally varying weighting. Since this causes strong correlations among all gravity field parameters, the resulting full normal equation system with a size of 2 TB had to be solved rigorously by applying high-performance computing. GOCO05c is the first combined gravity field model independent of EGM2008 that contains GOCE data of the whole mission period. The performance of GOCO05c is externally validated by GNSS–levelling comparisons, orbit tests, and computation of the mean dynamic topography, achieving at least the quality of existing high-resolution models. Results show that the additional GOCE information is highly beneficial in insufficiently observed areas, and that due to the weighting scheme of individual data the spectral and spatial consistency of the model is significantly improved. Due to usage of fill-in data in specific regions, the model cannot be used for physical interpretations in these regions.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the provision of regional terrestrial and altimetric data sets by the institutions mentioned in Sect. 2, and the provision of extensive supercomputing resources by the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ; Address: Boltzmannstraße 1, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany). We also thank two anonymous reviewers; their comments and suggestions helped to improve the paper significantly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Astronomical and Physical Geodesy, Technical University of Munich, Arcisstraße 21, 80333, Munich, Germany

    T. Fecher, R. Pail & T. Gruber

Authors
  1. T. Fecher
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  2. R. Pail
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  3. T. Gruber
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Consortia

the GOCO Consortium

  • University of Bonn, Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation

    • W-D Schuh
    • , J Kusche
    • , J M Brockmann
    • , I Loth
    • , S Müller
    • , A Eicker
    •  & J Schall

  • Graz University of Technology, Institute of Geodesy

    • T Mayer-Gürr
    • , A Kvas
    • , B Klinger
    • , D Rieser
    •  & N Zehentner

  • Austrian Academy of Sciences, Space Research Institute

    • O Baur
    • , E Höck
    •  & S Krauss

  • University of Bern, Astronomical Institute

    • A Jäggi
    • , U Meyer
    • , L Prange
    •  & A Maier

Corresponding author

Correspondence to T. Fecher.

Additional information

The names of members of the GOCO Consortium are given in Appendix

Appendix

Appendix

GOCO Consortium Comprises: W-D Schuh, J Kusche, JM Brockmann, I Loth, S Müller, A Eicker, J Schall (University of Bonn, Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation), T Mayer-Gürr, A Kvas, B Klinger, D Rieser, N Zehentner (Graz University of Technology, Institute of Geodesy), O Baur, E Höck, S Krauss (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Space Research Institute), A Jäggi, U Meyer, L Prange, A Maier (University of Bern, Astronomical Institute).

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Fecher, T., Pail, R., Gruber, T. et al. GOCO05c: A New Combined Gravity Field Model Based on Full Normal Equations and Regionally Varying Weighting. Surv Geophys 38, 571–590 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-016-9406-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-016-9406-y

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