Australian Free Air Gravity Anomaly Grid with 435m Resolution

A free air gravity anomaly grid for Australia and its continental margins, derived from approximately 1.4 million ground stations and offshore data. The grid has a cell size of 0.00417 degrees (approximately 435m) and data is provided in units of um/s^2 (gravity units). The compilation incorporates ground observations from the 1940s to 2019, processed and quality-checked by Geoscience Australia geophysicists.

Use Cases

• Model subsurface geological structure based on density variations indicated by gravity anomalies.
• Map regional crustal thickness and tectonic features based on the free air anomaly grid.
• Support mineral and resource exploration targeting by interpreting the processed gravity response.
• Integrate with other geophysical datasets for comprehensive geological interpretation.

Strengths

• Derived from nearly 1.4 million quality-checked gravity stations from the Australian National Gravity Database.
• Station spacing varies from 11 km to less than 1 km, with major parts of the continent between 2.5 and 7 km.
• Grid cell size is 0.00417 degrees (approximately 435m), providing a detailed spatial resolution.
• Incorporates decades of data from the 1940s to 2019, compiled from government, industry, and academic sources.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, incorporating data from Geoscience Australia, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA, and NGA.

Collection Method

Ground gravity observations processed via standard methods and supplemented with offshore data from the Global Gravity grid.

Time Range

1940s to 2019 (ground observations), with offshore data from v28.1 of the Global Gravity grid.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 19:11:38.700649; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia and its continental margins.