National Gravity Compilation 2019: Airborne DGIR Grid for Australia

2019 compilation integrates nearly 1.4 million ground gravity stations and 451,000 line km of airborne surveys collected from the 1940s onward. The grid, with a cell size of approximately 435m, shows de-trended global isostatic residual anomalies over Australia and its continental margins. It was produced by Geoscience Australia from the Australian National Gravity Database and global offshore data.

Use Cases

• Modeling subsurface geological structures based on gravity anomaly data.
• Improving resolution in areas with sparse ground data using integrated airborne gravity and gradiometry surveys.
• Conducting isostatic studies based on the de-trended global isostatic residual anomalies.

Strengths

• Integrates a large volume of observations, including nearly 1.4 million ground stations and 451,000 line km of airborne data.
• Data quality was checked by GA geophysicists to ensure it is fit-for-purpose.
• Combines multiple data sources, including ground observations, offshore global grids, and airborne surveys for improved coverage.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Station spacing for ground observations varies from 11 km to less than 1 km, which may create uneven resolution.
• Data freshness should be verified as the underlying national gravity database snapshot is from September 2019.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Processed from ground observations, airborne gravity/ gradiometry surveys, and global offshore grids using standard geophysical methods.

Time Range

1940s to 2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 12:40:13.883334; underlying data snapshot from September 2019.

Geography

Australia and its continental margins