Planar, spherical and ellipsoidal approximations of Poisson's integral in near zone

摘要

Planar, spherical, and ellipsoidal approximations of Poisson's integral for downward continuation (DWC) of gravity anomalies are discussed in this study. The planar approximation of Poisson integral is assessed versus the spherical and ellipsoidal approximations by examining the outcomes of DWC and finally the geoidal heights. We present the analytical solution of Poisson's kernel in the point-mean discretization model that speed up computation time 500 times faster than spherical Poisson kernel while preserving a good numerical accuracy. The new formulas are very simple and stable even for regions with very low height. It is shown that the maximum differences between spherical and planar DWC as well as planar and ellipsoidal DWC are about 6 mm and 18 mm respectively in the geoidal heights for a rough mountainous area such as Iran.