Simulation of gravity gradients: a comparison study
Abstract
At different European institutes software has been developed for evaluation of the gravitational potential of the Earth using high degree spherical harmonic expansions. In this report the results of a comparison of a number of these software packages are presented. We compared the results for the second order derivatives (gravity gradients). It appeared that one of the most critical points in these computations is the definition of the coordinates, which should be as accurate as possible. Machine dependency and algorithm setup were of less importance, the former being only reflected in CPU timing results.
- Publication:
-
Bulletin Geodesique
- Pub Date:
- December 1991
- DOI:
- Bibcode:
- 1991BGeod..65..218B
- Keywords:
-
- Computerized Simulation;
- Earth Gravitation;
- Geopotential;
- Gravitational Fields;
- Series Expansion;
- Spherical Harmonics;
- Algorithms;
- Central Processing Units;
- Geocentric Coordinates;
- Gradiometers;
- Software Tools;
- Spherical Coordinates;
- Gravitational Potential;
- Gravity Gradient;
- Legendre Function;
- Gradient Component;
- Gravitational Gradient