Geoid determination in South Korea from a combination of terrestrial and airborne gravity anomaly data

The determination of the geoid in South Korea is a national imperative for the modernization of height datums, specifically the orthometric height and the dynamic height, that are used to monitor hydrological systems and environments with accuracy and easy revision, if necessary. The geometric heights above a reference ellipsoid, routinely obtained by GPS, lead immediately to vertical control with respect to the geoid for hydrological purposes if the geoid height above the ellipsoid is known accurately. The geoid height is determined from gravimetric data, traditionally ground data, but in recent times also from airborne data. This paper illustrates the basic concepts for combining these two types of data and gives a preliminary performance assessment of either set or their combination for the determination of the geoid in South Korea. It is shown that the most critical aspect of the combination is the gravitational effect of the topographic masses above the geoid, which, if not properly taken into account, introduces a significant bias of about 8 mgal in the gravity anomalies, and which can lead to geoid height bias errors of up to 10 cm. It is further confirmed and concluded that achieving better than 5 cm precision in geoid heights from gravimetry remains a challenge that can be surmounted only with the proper combination of terrestrial and airborne data, thus realizing higher data resolution over most of South Korea than currently available solely from the airborne data.