Reference Gravity Frame in Latin America

Abstract

With the development of the ballistic gravimeter in the late 80s, the efforts to establish reliable absolute gravity reference around the world became a reality. The need for the so-called International Terrestrial Gravity Reference Frame (ITGRF[1]) to substitute the IGSN 71 (International Gravity Standardization Net 1971) is one of the demands of modern Geodesy. In that context, the Laboratório de Topografia e Geodesia, Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (LTG/EPUSP), Brazil, started in 2013, with the acquisition of the A10 n^o 32 (A10-032) absolute gravimeter, a large number of campaigns to measure gravity acceleration in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Paraná and abroad. The gravimeter was purchased by Instituto Geográfico e Cartográfico (IGC), state of São Paulo. After eight years of operation under the coordination of the Centro de Estudos de Geodesia(CENEGEO) and with the support of different institutions, a total of five national Gravity Reference (GR) was established: Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Venezuela. The present efforts are the selection of a set of local GR in the different countries of Latin America and a possible contribution to the ITGRF.

[1] The ITGRS/F acronyms were approved by IAG JWG 2.1.1 in April 2022, replacing the former IGRS/F acronyms.