Arctic Airborne Gravity Measurement Program

Abstract

Gravity data over the Arctic Ocean region are sparse due to the permanent ice-pack which precludes conventional shipboard measurement. Satellite altimetry from ERS-1 is contributing to the coverage at some level of accuracy and resolution, but is also limited by the inclination of the orbit. Although quantities of ice-surface and submarine gravity have been collected by various countries, the major portion of these data are not publicly available. Thus, until recently, the Arctic remained one of the poorest geodetically mapped regions in the northern hemisphere. In 1992 the US Naval Research Laboratory began a program to map the gravity and magnetic fields over the ice-covered ocean basins of the Arctic from aircraft. Four field seasons have now been completed over the deep-water Canada Basin at this time with a fifth expedition scheduled for the summer of 1997. We present here preliminary results from these field campaigns and plans for additional work in the Arctic, including expansion of coverage into the Eurasia Basin.