Improved the Accuracy of Seafloor Topography from Altimetry-Derived Gravity by the Topography Constraint Factor Weight Optimization Method

Abstract

Gravity geologic method is one of the important to derive seafloor topography by using altimetry-gravity, and its committed step is gridding of regional gravity anomaly. Hence, we proposed a topography constraint factor weight optimization (TCFWO) method based on ordinary kriging method. This method fully considers the influence of topography factors on the construction of regional gravity grid besides horizontal distance. The results of regional gravity anomaly models constructed in the Markus-Wake seamount area show that the TCFWO method is better than ordinary kriging method. Then, the above two regional gravity models were applied to invert the seafloor topography. The accuracy of derived topographic models was evaluated by using the shipborne depth data and existing seafloor topography models, including ETOPO1 and V19.1 model. The experimental results show that the accuracy of ST_TCFWO (seafloor topography model inverted by TCFWO method) is better than ST_KR (seafloor topography model inverted by kriging method) and ETOPO1 model. Compared with the ST_KR, the accuracy of the ST_TCFWO has improved about 26%. In addition, the accuracy of seafloor topography is affected by the variation of depth, the distribution of control points and the type of terrain. In different depth layers, the ST_TCFWO has better advantages than ST_KR. In the sparse shipborne measurements area, the accuracy of ST_TCFWO is better than that of V19.1, ETOPO1 and ST_KR. Moreover, compared to other models, ST_TCFWO performs better in flat submarine plain or rugged seamount area.