Australian National Gravity Compilation 2019: Airborne DGIR 0.5VD Image

Nearly 1.8 million gravity observations, including 1.4 million ground stations and 451,000 line kilometers of airborne data, were used to create this 2019 national grid. Geoscience Australia compiled and quality-checked data from government, industry, and research sources dating from the 1940s to produce this image. The grid shows the half vertical derivative of de-trended global isostatic residual anomalies across Australia and its continental margins at a cell size of approximately 435 meters.

Use Cases

• Interpret subsurface geological structure based on gravity anomaly patterns.
• Enhance resolution in areas with sparse ground data using integrated airborne gravity and gradiometry surveys.
• Model isostatic corrections and crustal density variations from the processed DGIR grid.
• Map continental margin features using the offshore data sourced from global gravity grids.

Strengths

• Integrates approximately 1.8 million observations from multiple sources, including 1.4 million ground stations.
• Includes 451,000 line kilometers of airborne gravity and gravity gradiometry data to improve resolution.
• Data quality was checked by Geoscience Australia geophysicists to ensure fitness-for-purpose.
• Combines historical data from the 1940s onward with modern surveys for comprehensive national coverage.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and exact file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the aggregation of surveys over decades.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments, mining industry, universities, and research organisations.

Collection Method

Processed from ground observations in the Australian National Gravity Database and airborne surveys, with offshore data from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA, and NGA.

Time Range

1940s to 2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 01:22:59.975684; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia and its continental margins