137
Views
3
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Articles

An Analytical Method to Estimate Seabed Topography Only from Vertical Gravitational Gradient

, &
Pages 306-326 | Received 20 Dec 2020, Accepted 12 Mar 2021, Published online: 02 Apr 2021
 

Abstract

In the present methods to estimate seafloor topography from gravimetric data, some parameters need be computed in advance from the known bathymetric data, which leads some uncertainties in applying the methods. To overcome such uncertainties, an analytical method to estimate the seafloor topography from the vertical gravity gradient (VGG) is introduced in the paper. Based on the expression of VGG generated by a cubic prism, the observation equations for the seabed depth are established firstly. Then, the simulation results show that the observation equations established are solvable. Especially, the piecewise bilinear interpolation is introduced to separate the influence of the far-field anomalous bodies on VGG. In addition, some imitation arithmetic examples are given in order to examine the solvability of the observation equations and estimate the accuracies of their solutions. Finally, an actual seafloor topography located in South China Sea (117.6-118.25°E, 17-17.65°N), is estimated by the method proposed in the paper, and compared with ship depth sounding, the root mean square (RMS) error of bathymetry prediction is 77 m.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank to GFZ and NGDC for supplying actual data.

Author contributions

Derivations for main formulas, designs of computations and writing original draft, Yu Jinhai; Software, computations for arithmetic examples and analysis for computational results, Xu Huan; Analysis for actual topography and review paper, Wan Xiaoyun. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work is funded jointly by the Major Research Plan of China (No. 2016YFB0501702), the National Nature Science Funds of China (No. 41774089, 41674026) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2652018027).

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 61.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 312.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.