Error estimation and optimization of gravity surveys1

Abstract Gravity data are often acquired over long periods of time using different instruments and various survey techniques, resulting in data sets of non‐uniform accuracy. As station locations are inhomogeneously distributed, gravity values are interpolated on to a regular grid to allow further processing, such as computing horizontal or vertical gradients. Some interpolation techniques can estimate the interpolation error. Although estimation of the error due to interpolation is of importance, it is more useful to estimate the maximum gravity anomaly that may have gone undetected by a survey. This is equivalent to the determination of the maximum mass whose gravity anomaly will be undetected at any station location, given the data accuracy at each station. Assuming that the maximum density contrast present in the survey area is known or can be reasonably assumed from a knowledge of the geology, the proposed procedure is as follows: at every grid node, the maximum mass whose gravity anomaly does not disturb any of the surrounding observed gravity values by more than their accuracies is determined. A finite vertical cylinder is used as the mass model in the computations. The resulting map gives the maximum detection error and, as such, it is a worst‐case scenario. Moreover, the map can be used to optimize future gravity surveys: new stations should be located at, or near, map maxima. The technique is applied to a set of gravity observations obtained from different surveys made over a period of more than 40 years in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in eastern Canada.