EGM96

EGM96 (Earth Gravitational Model 1996) is a geopotential model of the Earth consisting of spherical harmonic coefficients complete to degree and order 360.

Description

EGM96 is a composite solution, consisting of:

This model is the result of a collaboration between the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), and the Ohio State University.

The joint project took advantage of new surface gravity data from many different regions of the globe, including data newly released from the NIMA archives. Major terrestrial gravity acquisitions by NIMA since 1990 include airborne gravity surveys over Greenland and parts of the Arctic and the Antarctic, surveyed by the Naval Research Lab (NRL) and cooperative gravity collection projects, several of which were undertaken with the University of Leeds. These collection efforts have improved the data holdings over many of the world's land areas, including Africa, Canada, parts of South America and Africa, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. In addition, there have been major efforts to improve NIMA's existing 30′ mean anomaly database through contributions over various countries in Asia.