Abstract
To meet increased demands in mapping, surveying, geodesy, and large infrastructure projects, an accurate national geoid model for Saudi Arabia is required to transform ellipsoid heights to orthometric heights. The lack of data and the nature of the topography make the computation of a geoid model in Saudi Arabia a difficult task. Two regional geoids were developed for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA): (1) the KSA geoid developed by the General Directorate of Survey (GDS); and (2) a geoid developed by the Ministry of Municipality and Rural Affairs (MOMRA). The KSA model was developed using a remove and restore technique and over 5,000 observations of Global Positioning System (GPS) ellipsoidal heights on leveling benchmarks (GPS/BM). The MOMRA geoid was estimated from 861GPS/Levelling with a kriging approach. A GPS/Levelling test campaign (T campaign) was carried out in 2010 by re-observing about 391 BM stations common to the two geoid models. The two geoid models are first compared against each other and EGM2008 at the 391 BM stations from the T campaign. The absolute differences between models may reach several meters, whereas the standard deviation of the differences ranges between 0.5 and 1.5 m. Analysis revealed that KSA and MOMRA geoids seem not to coincide. Both are biased (means of 0.46 m) and highly scattered (standard deviation is ±0.72 m). Next, geoid models developed using GOCE satellite data are used to validate the T campaign data.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alrajhi M, Yanar R, Hawarey M, Alomar A (2009) Refinement of Geoid in Saudi Arabia using GPS/Benchmark data with EGM1996 and EGM2008. Geophysical Research Abstracts, vol 11, EGU2009-4385, European Geosciences Union. Presented at EGU general assembly 2009, Vienna, Austria, April 2009
Altamimi Z, Sillard P, Boucher C (2002) ITRF2000: a new release of the international terrestrial reference frame for earth science applications. J Geophys Res 107(B10):2214. doi:10.1029/2001JB000561
Altamimi Z, Collilieux X, Legrand J, Garayt B, Boucher C (2007) ITRF2005: a new release of the international terrestrial reference frame based on time series of station positions and Earth Orientation Parameters. J Geophys Res 112, B09401. doi:10.1029/2007JB004949
Bouman J, Fiorot S, Fuchs M, Gruber T, Schrama E, Tscherning CC, Veicherts M, Visser P (2011) GOCE gravitational gradients along the orbit. J Geod 85:791–805. doi:10.1007/s00190-011-0464-0
Davis JC (1986) Statistics and data analysis in geology. John Wiley, New York, NY
Featherstone WE (2001) Absolute and relative testing of gravimetric geoid models using Global Positioning System and orthometric height data. Comput Geosci 27:807–814
Gruber Th, Visser PN, Ackermann Ch, Hosse M (2011) Validation of GOCE gravity field models by means of orbit residuals and geoid comparisons. J Geod 85:845–860. doi:10.1007ls00190-011-0486-7
Heiskanen WA, Moritz H (1967) Physical geodesy. W. H. Freeman, San Francisco, CA
Mathworks (2004) MATLAB: the language of technical computing, version 7.0. Mathworks, Inc., 3 Apple Hill Drive, Natick, MA, 01760-2098, USA
Mayer-Gürr T, Kurtenbach E, Eicker A (2010) ITG-Grace2010. http://www.igg.uni-bonn.de/apmg/index.php?id=itg-grace2010
Mayer-Gürr T et al (2012) The new combined satellite only model GOCO03s. Abstract submitted to GGHS2012, Venice (Poster)
Moritz H (1992) Geodetic reference system 1980. Bull Geod 62(2):187–192
Moritz H (1980) Advanced physical geodesy. Abacus, Kent, 500 pp
Ngiboglu SM (2008) Final report on the determination of the geoid for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, General Directorate of Military Survey, GDMS, 2008, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Internal Document
Pavlis NK, Holmes SA, Kenyon SC, Factor JK (2012) The development and evaluation of the Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM2008). J Geophys Res 117:38. doi:10.1029/2011JB008916
Reigber Ch, Balmino G, Schwintzer P, Biancale R, Bode A, Lemoine J-M, Koenig R, Loyer S, Neumayer H, Marty J-C, Barthelmes F, Perosanz F, Zhu SY (2002) A high quality global gravity field model from CHAMP GPS tracking data and accelerometry (EIGEN-1S). Geophys Res Lett 29(14). doi:10.1029/2002GL015064
Rummel R, Gruber Th, Yi W, Albertella A (2012) GOCE: its principles and science. In: Schuh H, Böhm J, Nilsson T, Capitaine N (eds) Proceedings of the Journées 2011 “Systèmes de référence spatio-temporels”. Vienna University of Technology
Tapley BD, Bettadpur S, Watkins M, Reigber C (2004) The gravity recovery and climate experiment: mission overview and early results. Geophys Res Lett 31(9), L09607. doi:10.1029/2004GL019920
Torge W, Denker H (1991) Possible improvements of the existing European geoid. In: Rapp R, Sanso F (eds) Determination of the geoid. International association of geodesy symposia, no 106. Springer, New York, NYx
Yun HS (1999) Precision geoid determination by spherical FFT in and around the Korean peninsula. Earth Planets Space 51:13–18
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, KACST, for the support to publish this paper. Professor S.M. Naqiboglu and Dr. M.E. Ayhan are acknowledged for their suggestions and computation and analyses. Also, General Directorate of Survey (GDS), Ministry of Municipality and Rural Affairs (MOMRA), and ARAMCO are acknowledged for providing the data and their cooperation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Alothman, A. et al. (2014). Validation of Regional Geoid Models for Saudi Arabia Using GPS/Levelling Data and GOCE Models. In: Marti, U. (eds) Gravity, Geoid and Height Systems. International Association of Geodesy Symposia, vol 141. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10837-7_25
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10837-7_25
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-10836-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-10837-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)