Comparison of marine gravity from shipboard and high‐density satellite altimetry along the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge, 30.5°–35.5°S

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Abstract
We compare new marine gravity fields derived from satellite altimetry with shipboard measurements over a region of more than 120,000 square kilometers in the central South Atlantic. Newly declassified satellite data were employed to construct free‐air anomaly maps on 0.05 degree grids [Sandwell and Smith, 1992; Marks et al., 1993]. An extensive gravity and bathymetry dataset from four cruises along the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge from 30.5–35.5°S provides a benchmark for testing the two‐dimensional resolution and accuracy of the satellite measurements where their crosstrack spacing is near their widest. The satellite gravity signal is coherent with bathymetry in this region down to wavelengths of 26 km (γ²=0.5), compared to 12.5 km for shipboard gravity. Residuals between the shipboard and satellite datasets have a roughly normal distribution. The standard deviation of satellite gravity with respect to shipboard measurements is nearly 7 mGal in a region of 140 mGal total variation, whereas the internal standard deviation at crossovers for GPS‐navigated shipboard data is 1.8 mGal. The differences between shipboard and satellite data are too large to use satellite gravity to determine crustal thickness variations within a typical ridge segment.