Effect of Implementing Moho Depths on Gravity Interpolation at Large Data Gaps

The coverage of the gravity data plays an important role in the geoid determination process. Still some parts in the world have poor gravity data coverage, with sometimes, large data gaps, e.g., Africa. In this paper we study the effect of implementing Moho depths on the gravity interpolation at large data gaps. For this reason, and in order to qualify that effect, an artificial data gap has been made in the gravity data set of Austria (originally with perfect gravity data coverage). The outcome of the present study is essential for the IAG sub-commission on the gravity and geoid in Africa in order to determine the African geoid from the available data sets with the best possible precision. The gravity interpolation has been made at the original omitted data points at the data gap with and without the Moho information. The interpolated gravity has thus been compared to the original omitted data values for both cases to determine the effect of using Moho depths on gravity interpolation. The results are shown and comprehensively discussed.