Geopotential of the Geoid-Based North American Vertical Datum

Abstract

The European Space Agency’s dedicated satellite gravity field mission the Gravity Field and Steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) will at the end of its lifespan achieve 1-2 cm geoid accuracy at a spatial resolution of 100 km. This thesis attempts to answer the question: is a GOCE satellite-only global geopotential model (GGM) sufficient for geodetic applications such as datum unification in North America? The main research objectives that were investigated in order to answer this question include: GOCE GGM evaluation, estimation of height datum offsets for regional vertical datums, and the estimation of the gravity potential for a geoid-based vertical datum. Based on the research objective outcomes, it can be concluded that using only a GOCE satellite-based GGM is not sufficient for geodetic applications such as datum unification in North America. Thus, a GOCE GGM should be rigorously combined with gravity and topography data in a remove-compute-restore geoid modelling scheme.