Using radial basis functions in airborne gravimetry for local geoid improvement

Radial basis functions (RBFs) have been used extensively in satellite geodetic applications. However, to the author’s knowledge, their role in processing and modeling airborne gravity data has not yet been fully advocated or extensively investigated in detail. Compared with satellite missions, the airborne data are more suitable for these kinds of localized basis functions especially considering the following facts: (1) Unlike the satellite missions that can provide global or near global data coverage, airborne gravity data are usually geographically limited. (2) It is also band limited in the frequency domain. (3) It is straightforward to formulate the RBF observation equations from an airborne gravimetric system. In this study, a set of band-limited RBF is developed to model and downward continue the airborne gravity data for local geoid improvement. First, EIGEN6c4 coefficients are used to simulate a harmonic field to test the performances of RBF on various sampling, noise, and flight height levels, in order to gain certain guidelines for processing the real data. Here, the RBF method not only successfully recovers the harmonic field but also presents filtering properties due to its particular design in the frequency domain. Next, the software was tested for the GSVS14 (Geoid Slope Validation Survey 2014) area in Iowa as well as for the area around Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands by use of the real airborne gravity data from the Gravity for the Redefinition of the American Vertical Datum (GRAV-D) project. By fully utilizing the three-dimensional correlation information among the flight tracks, the RBF can also be used as a data cleaning tool for airborne gravity data adjustment and cleaning. This property is further extended to surface gravity data cleaning, where conventional approaches have various limitations. All the related numerical results clearly show the importance and contribution of the use of the RBF for high- resolution local gravity field modeling.