Spatial resolution of airborne gravity estimates in Kalman filtering

Airborne gravimetry is an efficient and reliable method to obtain information on the gravity field, fundamental to gravity field modelling, geoid determination, and flood risk mapping. In evaluation and utilization of gravity estimates, two measures are of fundamental importance, namely the accuracy...

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Main Author: Jensen Tim Enzlberger
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: De Gruyter 2022-12-01
Series:Journal of Geodetic Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1515/jogs-2022-0143
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author Jensen Tim Enzlberger
author_facet Jensen Tim Enzlberger
author_sort Jensen Tim Enzlberger
collection DOAJ
description Airborne gravimetry is an efficient and reliable method to obtain information on the gravity field, fundamental to gravity field modelling, geoid determination, and flood risk mapping. In evaluation and utilization of gravity estimates, two measures are of fundamental importance, namely the accuracy and spatial resolution. These measures are related to one another through the filtering required to suppress observational noise. As strapdown inertial measurement units (IMUs) are increasingly deployed for airborne gravity surveys, the Kalman filter estimation method is routinely used for gravity determination. Since filtering is not applied directly to the observations in Kalman filtering, it is not straightforward to associate the derived gravity estimates with a measure of spatial resolution. This investigation presents a method for deriving spatial resolution by evaluating the transfer function formed after applying a delta function to the observed accelerations. The method is applied to Kalman-filter-derived gravity estimates from an airborne strapdown IMU system, yielding a full-wavelength spatial resolution of 5.5 km at an accuracy of 0.6 mGal. These results are consistent with a comparison with upward continued terrestrial gravity observations.
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spelling doaj.art-dfb41c2ea79f4451bb8e1806198698402023-02-05T08:27:16ZengDe GruyterJournal of Geodetic Science2081-99432022-12-0112118519410.1515/jogs-2022-0143Spatial resolution of airborne gravity estimates in Kalman filteringJensen Tim Enzlberger0National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark (DTU Space), Kgs. Lyngby, DenmarkAirborne gravimetry is an efficient and reliable method to obtain information on the gravity field, fundamental to gravity field modelling, geoid determination, and flood risk mapping. In evaluation and utilization of gravity estimates, two measures are of fundamental importance, namely the accuracy and spatial resolution. These measures are related to one another through the filtering required to suppress observational noise. As strapdown inertial measurement units (IMUs) are increasingly deployed for airborne gravity surveys, the Kalman filter estimation method is routinely used for gravity determination. Since filtering is not applied directly to the observations in Kalman filtering, it is not straightforward to associate the derived gravity estimates with a measure of spatial resolution. This investigation presents a method for deriving spatial resolution by evaluating the transfer function formed after applying a delta function to the observed accelerations. The method is applied to Kalman-filter-derived gravity estimates from an airborne strapdown IMU system, yielding a full-wavelength spatial resolution of 5.5 km at an accuracy of 0.6 mGal. These results are consistent with a comparison with upward continued terrestrial gravity observations.https://doi.org/10.1515/jogs-2022-0143airborne gravimetrykalman filteringspatial resolutionstrapdown imu
spellingShingle Jensen Tim Enzlberger
Spatial resolution of airborne gravity estimates in Kalman filtering
Journal of Geodetic Science
airborne gravimetry
kalman filtering
spatial resolution
strapdown imu
title Spatial resolution of airborne gravity estimates in Kalman filtering
title_full Spatial resolution of airborne gravity estimates in Kalman filtering
title_fullStr Spatial resolution of airborne gravity estimates in Kalman filtering
title_full_unstemmed Spatial resolution of airborne gravity estimates in Kalman filtering
title_short Spatial resolution of airborne gravity estimates in Kalman filtering
title_sort spatial resolution of airborne gravity estimates in kalman filtering
topic airborne gravimetry
kalman filtering
spatial resolution
strapdown imu
url https://doi.org/10.1515/jogs-2022-0143
work_keys_str_mv AT jensentimenzlberger spatialresolutionofairbornegravityestimatesinkalmanfiltering