ZONG Jingwen,GUO Zhengdong,BIAN Shaofeng,et al.Shape Differences of Normal Gravity Equipotential Surfaces and Their Influence on Error Propagation in Gravity Matching Navigation[J].Journal of Geomatics,2026,51(5):115-122
ZONG Jingwen,GUO Zhengdong,BIAN Shaofeng,et al.Shape Differences of Normal Gravity Equipotential Surfaces and Their Influence on Error Propagation in Gravity Matching Navigation[J].Journal of Geomatics,2026,51(5):115-122DOI: 10.14188/j.2095-6045.20260372.
Shape Differences of Normal Gravity Equipotential Surfaces and Their Influence on Error Propagation in Gravity Matching Navigation
Normal gravity field models form the foundation of physical geodesy and marine gravity field construction. Focusing on the geometric relationships, shape differences and physical error propagation mechanisms among different equipotential surface models in the normal gravity field, this paper conducts a systematic derivation and numerical analysis of the normal gravity potential function. First, the radial equation of the level ellipsoid and the potential function equation for the level surface of an oblate spheroid are established. Second, the level surface equations for the Bruns spheroid and Helmert spheroid are derived using the power series expansion method, and the Newton iteration method is adopted as the numerical benchmark to verify the accuracy of finite-term expansion results. Finally, based on the vertical gradient of normal gravity, a quantitative evaluation model is constructed to describe how geometric deviations of equipotential surfaces propagate into gravity anomaly errors and positioning errors in gravity matching navigation.Calculation results show that a systematic deviation on the order of ten meters exists between the Bruns spheroid and the standard level ellipsoid, and the induced gravity anomaly error can reach the order of several mGal. The difference between the Helmert spheroid and the level ellipsoid is mainly on the centimeter scale, with a corresponding gravity anomaly error of approximately 0.02~0.03 mGal. The research findings indicate that the selection of equipotential surface models directly affects the performance of high-precision gravity anomaly reduction and the results of gravity matching navigation. The Helmert spheroid, or the normal gravity field model which strictly coincides with the level ellipsoid, is more suitable as reference models for the construction of marine gravity reference maps.
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