THE GEOID AND QUASIGEOID OF SÃO PAULO STATE USING THE UPDATED GRAVIMETRIC DATA AND THE 2018 BVRF

Abstract The combination of physical and geometric heights, required for geodetic purposes, uses Global Geopotential Models (GGMs), local geoid, or quasigeoid models. The geoid height and the height anomaly, provided by GGMs, are not accurate enough for most engineering applications. Considering the normal height system of Brazil and the physical concepts of the involved reference surfaces, a quasigeoid model is more appropriate than the current Brazilian geoid model MAPGEO2015. This paper shows the determination of the geoid and the quasigeoid models for São Paulo state using the updated gravimetric data and the new system of the normal height of the 2018 Brazilian Vertical Reference Frame (BVRF). The computation of the quasigeoid model was performed by numerical integration through the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The Molodensky gravity anomaly was determined in a 5’ grid and reduced and restored using the Residual Terrain Model (RTM) technique and the XGM2019e GGM truncated at degree and order 250 and 720. The geoid model was derived from the Bouguer gravity anomalies. The quasigeoid model validation has shown a Root Mean Square (RMS) difference of 18 cm compared with the Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements in the levelling network.