National Gravity Compilation 2019: Airborne DGIR 1VD Image of Australia

2019 compilation integrating approximately 1.8 million gravity observations from the 1940s to present. The grid is derived from ground stations, offshore data, and airborne surveys totaling 345,000 line km of gravity and 106,000 line km of gravity gradiometry data, processed by Geoscience Australia. It represents the first vertical derivative of de-trended global isostatic residual anomalies at a cell size of approximately 435 meters.

Use Cases

• Map subsurface geological structures based on gravity anomaly patterns.
• Enhance mineral exploration targeting by interpreting density contrasts in the crust.
• Model isostatic compensation and crustal thickness based on the de-trended global isostatic residual (DGIR) grid.
• Integrate airborne and ground gravity data for regional geophysical synthesis.

Strengths

• Integrates a large volume of observations: nearly 1.4 million ground stations and 451,000 line km of airborne data.
• Combines multiple data sources: historical ground surveys (1940s-present), offshore global grids, and modern airborne gravity gradiometry.
• Processed with standard geophysical methods and quality-checked by Geoscience Australia geophysicists.

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 Data, sourced from the Australian National Gravity Database and global grids from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA, and NGA.

Collection Method

Grid generated from ground and airborne gravity observations, processed via Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to calculate the first vertical derivative.

Time Range

1940s to 2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 00:57:04.441797; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia and its continental margins