A joint Australian-German research team led by Curtin University\u2019s Dr Christian Hirt has created the highest-resolution maps of Earth\u2019s gravity field to date \u2013 showing gravitational variations up to 40 per cent larger than previously assumed.<\/p>\n
Using detailed topographic information obtained from the US Space Shuttle, a specialist team including Associate Professor Michael Kuhn, Dr Sten Claessens and Moritz Rexer from Curtin\u2019s Western Australian Centre for Geodesy and Professor Roland Pail and Thomas Fecher from Technical University Munich improved the resolution of previous global gravity field maps by a factor of 40.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a world-first effort to portray the gravity field for all countries of our planet with unseen detail\u201d, Dr Hirt said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur research team calculated free-fall gravity at three billion points \u2013 that\u2019s one every 200 metres \u2013 to create these highest-resolution gravity maps. They show the subtle changes in gravity over most land areas of Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new gravity maps revealed the variations of free-fall gravity over Earth were much bigger than previously thought.<\/p>\n
The Earth\u2019s gravitational pull is smallest on the top of the Huascaran mountain in the South American Andes, and largest near the North Pole.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly a few years ago, this research would not have been possible,\u201d Dr Hirt said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe creation of the maps would have required about 80 years of office PC computation time but advanced supercomputing provided by the Western Australian iVEC facility helped us to complete the maps within a few months.\u201d<\/p>\n
High-resolution gravity maps are required in civil engineering, for instance, for building of canals, bridges and tunnels. The mining industry could also benefit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe maps can be used by surveyors and other spatial science professionals to precisely measure topographic heights with satellite systems such as the Global Positioning System (GPS),\u201d Dr Hirt said.<\/p>\n
The findings of the research team from Curtin and Technical University Munich have recently appeared in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. <\/p>\n
A video showing the researcher\u2019s work and further information can be found at http:\/\/geodesy.curtin.edu.au\/research\/models\/GGMplus\/<\/p>\n
Map extracts with continental coverage are available via
\nhttp:\/\/geodesy.curtin.edu.au\/research\/models\/GGMplus\/gallery.cfm<\/p>\n
The research has been supported by the Australian Research Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A joint Australian-German research team led by Curtin University\u2019s Dr Christian Hirt has created the highest-resolution maps of Earth\u2019s gravity field to date \u2013 showing gravitational variations up to 40 per cent larger than previously assumed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":9755,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-18163","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"Media Contact","content":"
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