Refinement of Bouguer anomalies derived from the EGM2008 model, impact on gravimetric signatures in mountainous region: Case of Cameroon Volcanic Line, Central Africa

Abstract

Global geopotential models have not included the very high frequencies of the Earth's external gravity field. This is called omission error. This omission error becomes more important in mountainous areas (areas with highly variable topography). The work reported here consists in reducing the omission error in measurements of Bouguer gravity anomalies, by refining the global geopotential model EGM2008 using the spectral enhancement method. This method consists in computing the residual terrain effects and then coupling them to the gravimetric signal of the global geopotential model. To compute the residual terrain effects, we used the Residual Terrain Model (RTM) technique. To refine it required a reference surface (ETOPO1) developed up to degree 2190 (the maximum degree of the EGM2008 model) and a detailed elevation model (AW3D30). Computation was performed with the TC program of the GRAVSOFT package. The topography of the study area was assumed to have a constant density of 2670 kg/m³. For the inner and outer zones, the respective integration radii of 10 km and 200 km have been chosen. We obtained very important RTM values ranging from −53.59 to 34.79 mGal. These values were added to the gravity anomalies grid of the EGM2008 model to improve accuracy at high frequencies. On a part of the Cameroon Volcanic Line and its surroundings (mountainous area), we made a comparison between the residual Bouguer anomalies before and after refinement. We report differences ranging from −37.40 to 26.40 mGal. We conclude that the impact of omission error on gravimetric signatures is observed especially in areas with high variable topography, such as on the Cameroon Volcanic Line and around the localities of Takamanda, Essu, Dumbo, and Ngambe. This finding illustrates the great influence that topography has on accurate measurement of these gravity anomalies, and thus why topography must be taken into account. We can conclude that in preparing a global geopotential model, a high resolution DTM must be used to decrease the omission error: the degree of expansion has to increase in order to take the higher frequencies into account. The refined Bouguer anomalies grid presented here can be used in addition to terrestrial gravity anomalies in the study area, especially in mountainous areas where gravimetric data are very sparse or non-existent.