AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL GRAVITY DATABASE – MAY 2003 EDITION

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Geoscience Australia would like to acknowledge the enormously valuable

contribution made by all state and territory Geological Surveys, private companies,
educational institutions and other research organisations in helping to produce and
maintain a National Gravity Database of over 1 200 000 stations. The data
contributed by these organisations make up a large component of the National
Gravity Database. Their inclusion considerably enhances the value of the National
Gravity Database to the geoscientific community.

DATA FORMAT

The gravity data are supplied in ASCII format. The data files consist of over 1,000,000 gravity station
records sorted by survey number and station number.
All onshore gravity station records have the survey number, station number, latitude, longitude, ground
elevation, observed gravity, gravity meter height, Free Air Anomaly and Bouguer Anomaly fields filled.
Some gravity stations have an "informal name", indicating bench mark number, isogal station, etc. Where
terrain corrections have been calculated, they have been included in the gravity station record but NOT
APPLIED to the Bouguer anomaly. If known the density used in the terrain correction is listed in columns
85 to 93 immediately following the terrain correction value. Onshore Bouguer anomalies are present
whenever they can be calculated using a density of 2.67 tonne/cubic metre.

All offshore gravity station records have the survey number, station number, latitude, longitude, water depth,
observed gravity, gravity meter height, Free Air Anomaly fields filled. Some gravity stations have an
"informal name" field filled in.

MEDIA FORMAT

The point located gravity data have been separated into 9 files as follows:

File Number File Name Contents

1. onshore_australia.dat Onshore data only for the entire continent.
2. onshore_wa.dat Onshore data for Western Australia.
3. onshore_nt.dat Onshore data for Northern Territory.
4. onshore_sa.dat Onshore data for South Australia.
5. onshore_qld.dat Onshore data for Queensland.
6. onshore_nsw_act.dat Onshore data for New South Wales and the Australian Capital
Territory.
7. onshore_vic.dat Onshore data for Victoria.
8. onshore_tas.dat Onshore data for Tasmania.
9. offshore_australia.dat Offshore data only.
RECORD FORMAT

The first three lines of each of the files contain column descriptions.
The onshore data files contain the following fields:

Field Name Columns Format Units Datum

1. Survey Number 1 – 6 I6
2. Space 7 1X
3. Station Number 8 – 21 I14
4. Space 22 – 23 2X
5. Latitude 24 – 34 F10.6 degrees GDA94
6. Space 35 1X
7. Longitude 36 – 45 F10.6 degrees GDA94
8. Space 46 – 47 2X
9. Ground Elevation 48 – 54 F7.2 metres AHD
10. Space 55 1X
11. Observed Gravity 56 – 66 F11.2 µms-2 IGSN71
12. Space 67 – 68 2X
13. Gravity Meter Height 69 – 75 F7.2 metres
14. Space 76 – 77 2X
15. Terrain Correction 78 – 83 F6.2 µms-2 IGSN71
16. Space 84 1X
17. Density used in Terrain Correction calculation 85 – 93 A9 tonne
metre-3
18. Space 94 1X
19. Free Air Anomaly 95 – 102 F8.2 µms-2 IGSN71
20. Space 103 1X
21. Bouguer Anomaly at 2.67 tonne metre-3 104 – 111 F8.2 µms-2 IGSN71
22. Space 112 1X
23. Informal Name 113 – 142 A30 "text"

Blank fields indicate missing data.

The offshore data file contains the following fields:

Field Name Columns Format Units Datum

1. Survey Number 1 – 6 I6
2. Space 7 1X
3. Station Number 8 – 21 I14
4. Space 22 – 23 2X
5. Latitude 24 – 34 F10.6 degrees GDA94
6. Space 35 1X
7. Longitude 36 – 45 F10.6 degrees GDA94
8. Space 46 – 47 2X
9. Water Depth 48 – 54 F7.2 metres AHD
10. Space 55 1X
11. Observed Gravity 56 – 66 F11.2 µms-2 IGSN71
12. Space 67 – 68 2X
13. Gravity Meter Height 69 – 75 F7.2 metres
14. Space 76 – 77 2X
15. Free Air Anomaly 78 – 85 F8.2 µms-2 IGSN71
16. Space 86 1X
17. Informal Name 87 – 116 A30 "text"

Blank fields indicate missing data.

DATA QUALITY – LINEAGE

The release of the 2003 edition of the Australian National Gravity Database contains some 1,028,000 point
data values in the area extending from 8°S to 48°S and 108°E to 162°E. All data are provided in GDA94
coordinates. Both onshore and offshore data are in the 2003 database release, which has approximately
390,000 gravity stations additional to the 2002 release.

The parameters of the point located data are:

Station spacing: various from 10 m to 11 km

Projection: Rectangular in latitude and longitude
Null value: blank

DATA QUALITY – POSITIONAL ACCURACY

Highly variable, depending on the age of the individual surveys that comprise this data set.
Prior to 1995 (approximately), data were collected using various techniques to determine position, such as
 manually scaling from base maps (100's m error);
 digitising from base maps derived from air photo station plots (100's m error);
 optical surveying methods (metre accuracy);
 recent surveys were acquired using differential GPS with sub metre accuracy.

Vertical accuracy is highly variable too, depending on the age of the survey.
Prior to the use of differential GPS station heights were determined by:
 picking off from a topographic map (10's metre error);
 using barometric techniques (metre errors);
 optical surveying techniques (sub metre accuracy).
Differential GPS gives centimetre accuracy.

DATA QUALITY – ATTRIBUTE ACCURACY

Highly variable depending on the age of the individual surveys that comprise this dataset.
Modern surveys use LaCoste & Romberg or Scintrex gravity meters which have an accuracy of 0.01 µms-²
(micrometres per second squared).
Earlier surveys used older style quartz spring meters with a lower accuracy (approximately 1.0µms-²).

GRAVITY DATUM

The gravity data as supplied are based on the IGSN71 datum and ISOGAL84 scale. The gravity unit used is
µms-2 (micrometres per second squared). The height data are given in metres based on the Australian
Height Datum (AHD). Station positions are given in the geodetic datum GDA94.

GRAVITY DATA PROCESSING

The processing of the gravity data used the following formulae:

(i) normal gravity based on the 1967 international gravity formula:
Gn = 9780318.456*(1 + 0.005278895 sin²+ 0.000023462 sin4)

where  represents degrees of latitude;

(ii) free air correction using the full formula expressed as a vertical gradient. For
IGSN71(GRS67) the formula is as follows (Robbins, 1981) and (Flis, Butt,
Hawke, 1998):
gh /h = -2go/a[1 + f + m + (-3f + (5m)/2)sin2] + (6go/a2)*h
where go = equatorial gravity on the ellipsoid
 = 9780318.456 µms-2
f = flattening coefficient = 1/298.25
a = semi–major axis radius of the ellipsoid
= 6378160 m
m = centrifugal force at equator/go
= 0.0034498014
 = latitude
h = height of gravity meter above ellipsoid

This can be expressed as:

Free Air correction (FAC) = (3.08768 – 0.00440 sin²)*h – 0.000001442*h2 µms-2 per metre;
Therefore,

Free Air Anomaly (FAA) = Obsgrav – Gn + FAC and

Simple Bouguer Anomaly = Obsgrav – Gn + FAC – 0.4191*elevation*density

Where:
elevation = ground height in metres in AHD
density = 2.67 tonne metre-3 (gm/cc)

REFERENCES

1. Flis, M.F., Butt, A.L., Hawke, P.J., 1998, Mapping the range front with gravity – are the
corrections up to it? Exploration Geophysics, 29, 378–383.
2. Robbins, S.L., 1981, Re–examination of the values used as constraints in calculating rock
density from borehole gravity data: Geophysics, 46, 208–210.

GRAVITY DATA ERRORS

Most of the gross errors have been removed from the database. However, errors are still present in the data.
If any such errors are found, please FAX or e-mail the details to:

The Gravity Database Administrator:

Mr Phillip Wynne,
Geophysical Acquisitions and Databases,
Geoscience Australia.

FAX: 02 6249 9917

E-mail: phill.wynne@ga.gov.au

These errors will be investigated and any corrections will be published in an update of the gravity database.

Phillip Wynne
Database Administrator

May 2003