National Gravity Compilation 2019: De-trended Isostatic Residual Grid for Australia

Australia's 2019 national gravity grid with a 0.00417-degree cell size (approximately 435m), derived from nearly 1.8 million observations. The grid combines ground, airborne, and offshore data to show de-trended global isostatic residual anomalies. Geoscience Australia compiled this dataset from sources dating from the 1940s to 2019.

Use Cases

• Modeling subsurface geological structures based on gravity anomaly patterns.
• Identifying potential mineral deposits based on density contrasts revealed in the grid.
• Integrating gravity data with other geophysical layers for continental-scale crustal studies.
• Calibrating airborne gravity survey results against a national standard baseline.

Strengths

• Integrates approximately 1.8 million observations, including 1.4 million ground stations and 345,000 line km of airborne gravity data.
• Grid cell size is precisely defined as 0.00417 degrees (approximately 435m).
• Data quality was checked by GA geophysicists to ensure it is fit-for-purpose.
• Combines multiple data sources (ground, airborne, gradiometry, offshore) for improved resolution.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Station spacing for ground observations varies from 11 km to less than 1 km, indicating uneven spatial resolution.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data, incorporating data from Commonwealth, State, Territory Governments, industry, universities, and global grids from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA, and NGA.

Collection Method

Processed from ground observations in the Australian National Gravity Database, supplemented by offshore and airborne gravity and gradiometry data.

Time Range

1940s to 2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 01:48:14.944497; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia and its continental margins