Development of Innovative Methodological Support for Marine Gravimetric Surveys

The authors discuss their main achievements in developing innovative methodological support for marine gravimetric surveys. They have actively participated in the development of gravimeters and created several generations of gravimetric equipment in cooperation with other organizations. The main characteristics and results of laboratory and marine tests of the mobile Chekan-AM and Shelf gravimetric systems are briefly considered. These systems have operated successfully in harsh Arctic conditions, including the first high-precision marine gravimetric survey in the region of the North Pole. The authors describe the methodological support, results from modern models of Earth’s gravitational field, and integration of data from various gravimetric instruments in the interests of marine gravimetry. The increase in accuracy and resolution of Earth gravitational field models has led to their use beyond solving only fundamental problems. In most areas of the World Ocean, the model field can be used as a reference field when performing a direct marine gravimetric survey. Innovative developments have increased the reliability and accuracy of marine surveys primarily due to the control and correction of systematic errors arising in marine measurements. They make it possible with no loss of measurement reliability to produce surveys at marine test ranges with an error of 0.5 mGal or less, expand the planning capabilities of the survey network, increase the reliability of long-term route surveys, reduce the time of reference measurements, and perform marine gravimetric surveys with only one onboard marine gravimeter and no need for shore-based reference points. An innovative method of accounting for the ocean tide with loading models of the ocean gravitational effect was developed based on the ATLANTIDA3.1_2014 program. Experiments have shown that random errors can thus be reduced by more than 20%. The results of the research have been used to develop ready-made innovative and promising methods for measuring the parameters of Earth’s gravitational field on the surface water area of the World Ocean.