Australian National Gravity Grid 2019 with Airborne and Ground Data

Australia and its continental margins are covered by a gravity anomaly grid with a cell size of 0.00417 degrees (approximately 435m). The grid integrates nearly 1.4 million ground stations, 345,000 line km of airborne gravity, and 106,000 line km of airborne gravity gradiometry, compiled from data collected from the 1940s to September 2019. The Australian Ocean Data Network processed this first vertical derivative grid using terrain corrections and a fast Fourier transform.

Use Cases

• Map subsurface geological structures based on complete Bouguer gravity anomalies.
• Enhance mineral exploration targeting based on high-resolution airborne gravity and gradiometry data.
• Model continental margin geology based on integrated offshore bathymetry and onshore topography corrections.
• Analyze regional density variations based on a compilation of ground and airborne gravity observations.

Strengths

• Integrates approximately 1.8 million observations from ground, airborne gravity, and airborne gravity gradiometry sources.
• Station spacing varies from 11 km to less than 1 km, with airborne survey line spacing from 0.5 km to 2.5 km.
• 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.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, incorporating data from Commonwealth, State, Territory Governments, industry, universities, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Collection Method

Standard processing of gravity observations from the Australian National Gravity Database, supplemented with offshore and airborne data.

Time Range

1940s to September 2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 19:30:10.553293; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia and its continental margins