Gravimetric geoid modeling from the combination of satellite gravity model, terrestrial and airborne gravity data: a case study in the mountainous area, Colorado

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Constructing a high-precision and high-resolution gravimetric geoid model in the mountainous area is a quite challenging task because of the lack of terrestrial gravity observations, rough topography and the geological complexity. One way out is to use high-quality and well-distributed satellite and airborne gravity data to fill the gravity data gaps; thus, the proper combination of heterogeneous gravity datasets is critical. In a rough topographic area in Colorado, we computed a set of gravimetric geoid models based on different combination modes of satellite gravity models, terrestrial and airborne gravity data using the spectral combination method. The gravimetric geoid model obtained from the combination of satellite gravity model GOCO06S and terrestrial gravity data agrees with the GPS leveling measured geoid heights at 194 benchmarks in 5.8 cm in terms of the standard deviation of discrepancies, and the standard deviation reduces to 5.3 cm after including the GRAV-D airborne gravity data collected at ~ 6.2 km altitude into the data combination. The contributions of airborne gravity data to the signal and accuracy improvements of the geoid models were quantified for different spatial distribution and density of terrestrial gravity data. The results demonstrate that, although the airborne gravity survey was flown at a high altitude, the additions of airborne gravity data improved the accuracies of geoid models by 13.4%–19.8% in the mountainous area (elevations > 2000 m) and 12.7%–21% (elevations < 2000 m) in the moderate area in the cases of terrestrial gravity data spacings are larger than 15 km.</jats:p>