Validation of a Tailored Gravity Field Model for Precise Quasigeoid Modelling over Limpopo Province in South Africa

Recently, a tailored gravity field model was developed to fit local terrestrial gravity data by integrating Global Gravitational Models (GGMs), terrestrial gravity data, and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). The numerical analysis of the newly developed tailored gravity model showed a substantial improvement by means of its possible application for geophysical exploration by exhibiting known geological features over the Southern Benue Trough of Nigeria. In this study, we apply a similar technique to develop a tailored gravity field model at the Limpopo Province in South Africa using a total of 8,603 terrestrial gravity measurements. Validation of results indicates that our tailored gravity model could reproduce the observed gravity data with the accuracy specified by a standard deviation of 8.9 mGal and with a systematic bias less than 0.1 mGal within the study area. We then inspected a possibility of using our tailored gravity field model to improve the accuracy of existing geoid/quasigeoid models at the study area. For this purpose, we compute a new (quasi)geoid model by applying the Remove-compute-restore numerical technique that treats separately the detailed gravity pattern that is closely correlated spatially with the topographic relief, the higher-to-medium gravity signal that is mostly captured by local/regional gravity data, and the long-wavelength gravity signal that is modelled by using GGMs. The accuracy of the new (quasi)geoid model was assessed by using the most recent South African gravimetric quasigeoid model CDSM09A and the latest hybrid quasigeoid model of South Africa SAGEOID10. The comparison of our quasigeoid model with the CDSM09A and SAGEOID10 quasigeoid models was done at 7,225 quasigeoid grid points. The comparison revealed that our new quasigeoid model closely agree with the CDSM09A and SAGEOID10 models. The differences between our and CDSM09A quasigeoid models vary within -0.31 and 0.70 m, with a mean of 0.05 m and a standard deviation of 0.12 m. The corresponding differences between our and SAGEOID10 quasigeoid models are between -0.35 and 0.70 m with a mean of 0.06 m and a standard deviation 0.12 m. The numerical analysis revealed that the new tailored gravity model could efficiently be used in various geophysical and geodetic applications.