The first high-precision gravity survey in the North Pole region

Abstract

The experience with conducting a marine gravity survey onboard a surface vessel under complicated ice conditions at high latitude is described. In 2014, a high-precision marine gravity survey with two modifications of the Chekan-AM gravimeter was carried out in the North Pole region. The measurements were conducted during two months from aboard the Akademik Fedorov research vessel on a given grid with a total length of 10000 km of the routes. As a result, 70000 gravity points at Arctic latitudes including the region of the geographical North Pole itself are acquired. In this paper, we discuss the methodical aspects of conducting the survey and present the accuracy estimates of the gravity measurements. The comparison of the obtained results with the Earth’s gravity models demonstrates the absence of systematic errors and the higher spatial resolution of the measurements with the Chekan-AM gravimeters.