Gravimetric geoid modelling over peninsular Malaysia using two different gridding approaches for combining free air anomaly

Abstract

We investigate the use of the KTH Method to compute gravimetric geoid models of Malaysian Peninsular and the effect of two differing strategies to combine and interpolate terrestrial, marine DTU17 free air gravity anomaly data at regular grid nodes. Gravimetric geoid models were produced for both free air anomaly grids using the GOCE-only geopotential model GGM GO-CONS-GCF-2-SPW-R4 as the long wavelength reference signal and high-resolution TanDEM-X global digital terrain model. The geoid models were analyzed to assess how the different gridding strategies impact the gravimetric geoid over Malaysian Peninsular by comparing themto 172 GNSS-levelling derived geoid undulations. The RMSE of the two sets of gravimetric geoid model / GNSS-levelling residuals differed by approx. 26.2 mm. When a 4-parameter fit is used, the difference between the RMSE of the residuals reduced to 8 mm. The geoid models shown here do not include the latest airborne gravity data used in the computation of the official gravimetric geoid for the Malaysian Peninsular, for this reason they are not as precise.