National Gravity Compilation 2019: Australian Airborne and Ground Gravity Grid

Approximately 1.8 million gravity observations, including nearly 1.4 million ground stations and 451,000 line kilometers of airborne surveys, were used to generate this grid. The dataset is a processed, quality-checked gravity anomaly grid with a 435-meter cell size, derived from the Australian National Gravity Database and global sources. It was compiled by Geoscience Australia and other government, industry, and research organizations using data collected from the 1940s to 2019.

Use Cases

• Model subsurface geological density structures based on gravity anomaly measurements.
• Integrate airborne and ground gravity data for regional geological mapping.
• Apply terrain corrections using onshore topography and offshore bathymetry data.
• Analyze the first vertical derivative of Bouguer anomalies for structural interpretation.

Strengths

• Integrates approximately 1.8 million observations from multiple sources (ground, airborne, global).
• Includes 345,000 line km of Airborne Gravity and 106,000 line km of Airborne Gravity Gradiometry data for enhanced resolution.
• Data quality was checked by GA geophysicists to ensure fitness for purpose.
• Terrain corrections were applied using both offshore bathymetry and onshore topography.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to data_gov_au, with station spacing varying from 11 km to less than 1 km across the continent.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, Geoscience Australia, Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments, mining industry, universities.

Collection Method

Processed from ground observations in the Australian National Gravity Database, offshore global gravity data, and airborne surveys, with terrain corrections and a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) applied.

Time Range

Data collected from the 1940s to 2019.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-05 00:55:35.886000; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia and its continental margins.