Evaluating Accuracy of HY-2A/GM-Derived Gravity Data With the Gravity-Geologic Method to Predict Bathymetry

• Main Authors: Zhijie Wei, Jinyun Guo, Chengcheng Zhu, Jiajia Yuan, Xiaotao Chang, Bing Ji
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-04-01
• Series: Frontiers in Earth Science
• Subjects: gravity-geologic method; marine gravity anomalies; South China Sea; density contrast; ocean depth; geological structure
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2021.636246/full

For the first time, HY-2A/GM-derived gravity anomalies determined with the least-squares collocation method and ship-borne bathymetry released from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) are used to predict bathymetry with the gravity-geologic method (GGM) over three test areas located in the South China Sea (105–122°E, 2–26°N). The iterative method is used to determine density contrasts (1.4, 1.5, and 1.6 g/cm3) between seawater and ocean bottom topography, improving the accuracy of GGM bathymetry. The results show that GGM bathymetry is the closest to ship-borne bathymetry at check points, followed by SRTM15+V2.0 model and GEBCO 2020 model. It is found that in a certain range, the relative accuracy of GGM bathymetry tends to improve with the increase of depth. Different geological structures affect the accuracy of GGM bathymetry. In addition, the influences of gravity anomalies and data processing method on GGM bathymetry are analyzed. Our assessment result suggests that GGM can be widely applied to bathymetry prediction and that HY-2A/GM-derived gravity data are feasible with good results in calculating ocean depth.