EXPLOITATION OF GOCE DATA FOR A LOCAL ESTIMATE OF GRAVITY FIELD AND GEOID IN THE PIEMONTE AREA (NORTHERN ITALY)

摘要

This paper describes the activities carried out by a working group that comprises the Civil Protection Department of Regione Piemonte, Altec S.p.A. (Advanced Logistic Technology Engineering Center) and Politecnico di Milano, regarding the exploitation of GOCE data for a local estimate of gravity field and geoid in the Piemonte area. The idea of the project was conceived in July 2004; the different groups operate as follows: Altec is prime contractor of the project and responsible for the coordination of the work, development of the demonstrative and/or operative products, analysis of the user requirements; Politecnico di Milano is responsible for the technical and scientific analysis and the development of specific algorithms needed for the modelling of the local gravity field and the geoid; Civil Protection of Regione Piemonte is interested in gravimetric and seismic applications (new gravity field map of the Piemonte area and evaluation of solid earth processes - geodynamics). The "GOCE Data for Civil Protection" Project started in February 2005. The main activities of the project are the following: analysis of the requirements of Civil Protection of Regione Piemonte; collection of gravimetric data at ground level and data validation; definition of technical procedures to estimate the gravity field and to evaluate the actual impact of GOCE data in the local geoid estimation procedure; integration of GOCE simulated data for the Piemonte area with gravimetric data at ground level; development of a "tool box" for the applications of the project, based on the exploitation of data collected over the area of interest and on software specifically developed with the aim of data updating, of evaluating project products, and possibly of identifying new potential applications (training, education, product promotion, etc). Most of the scheduled activities have been already carried out successfully. In particular, the scientific approach has proved the positive impact of the GOCE information on the local geoid estimation using simulated data. Besides, a specific "tool box" is well under construction and can now be used to estimate the gravitational field and the geoid in the Piemonte area, and to compute point-wise values. When the project will be completed, in the frame of a specific GIS, it will be possible to integrate a new gravimetric map of the Piemonte area with other data and also to compare the Piemonte geological map with gravimetric data.