Adjustment of the Local Gravimetric Network by Several Software Packages Using the Kazan Calibration Line as an Example

Abstract

Processing and adjustment of gravity measurements represent an essential scientific and practical challenge in geophysics and geodesy, necessitating efficient and reliable software solutions. In this article, we review five modern open-source software packages for processing gravity measurements, namely GSAdjust, GRAVS2, gTools, GravRelAdj, and GRAVITAS. Additionally, adjustments were performed using a current Python library (statsmodels), which demonstrated good results, providing an objective comparison with the presented software products. The work is focused on optimizing the processing of data from relative and absolute gravity meters, including network adjustment with one fixed point and multiple fixed points. The comparison was conducted using high-precision gravity measurements obtained from the A10 absolute gravity meter and CG-5 relative gravity meters at the Kazan gravity calibration line. The obtained results indicate that GSAdjust and GRAVS2 offer the most promising balance between usability and reliability. GSAdjust provides a user-friendly graphical interface and supports a range of analysis tasks, while GRAVS2 offers speed and robustness, albeit with a command-line interface. A modernization of the GRAVS2 software product for automated processing of large volumes of data is proposed. The study also emphasizes the importance of synchronizing absolute and relative measurements, incorporating nonlinear vertical gradients, and implementing robust adjustment methods to enhance the accuracy and reliability of gravity network solutions.