National Gravity Compilation 2019: Half-Derivative Bouguer Anomaly Grid for Australia

A 2019 compilation of approximately 1.8 million gravity observations, including nearly 1.4 million ground stations and airborne surveys totaling 451,000 line km, processed by Geoscience Australia. The grid has a cell size of 0.00417 degrees (approximately 435m) and shows a half vertical derivative of the complete Bouguer anomalies over Australia and its continental margins. Data sources include the Australian National Gravity Database and offshore data from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA, and NGA.

Use Cases

• Modeling subsurface geological structures based on gravity anomaly data.
• Integrating gravity data with other geophysical surveys for resource exploration.
• Analyzing continental margin geology based on combined onshore and offshore gravity observations.
• Applying terrain corrections for gravity data interpretation using bathymetry and topography.

Strengths

• Derived from approximately 1.8 million gravity observations, providing substantial data density.
• Incorporates data from multiple authoritative sources, including Geoscience Australia and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
• Grid cell size of approximately 435 meters offers a relatively fine spatial resolution for continental-scale analysis.
• Data quality was checked by GA geophysicists to ensure it is fit-for-purpose.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific computational tasks.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the collection methods and station spacing, which varies from 1 km to 11 km across the continent.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia (GA), Australian National Gravity Database, and global gravity grids from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA, and NGA.

Collection Method

Ground and airborne gravity surveys processed via standard methods and FFT to produce a half vertical derivative grid.

Time Range

Observations collected from the 1940s to September 2019, compiled in 2019.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 17:19:59.124263; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia and its continental margins.