A preliminary synthetic model of the time-variable gravity disturbances due to (Mw = 7 or 8) earthquakes suitable for satellite gravity mission simulation studies.

Like the individual components (athomosphere, ocean, terrestrially stored water, land ice and solid Earth effects) of updated Earth System Model (Dobslaw et al. 2015), the model is given in spherical harmonics (up to degree and order 180) and for the years 1995 until 2006. File formats and conventions follow the ICGEM standards.

The spherical harmonic (Stokes) coefficients represent the gravity signature of 291 earthquakes occurring at different times and locations and they have been calculated using self-gravitating compressible viscoelastic Earth models (Sabadini et al. 2016) based on the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM; Dziewonsky and Anderson, 1981).

Watch the video below and give a look to the Gravitational Seismology project for more details.

References

Dobslaw, H., Bergmann-Wolf, I., Dill, R., Forootan, E., Klemann, V., Kusche, J. & Sasgen, I., 2015. The Updated ESA Earth System Model for Future Gravity Mission Simulation Studies, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, doi:10.5880/GFZ.1.3.2014.001

Sabadini, R., Vermeersen, L.L.A. and Cambiotti, G., 2016. Global Dynamics of the Earth: Applications of Viscoelastic Relaxation Theory to Solid-Earth and Planetary Geophysics, Second Edition, Springer

Dziewonsky, A.M. and Anderson, D.L., 1981. Preliminary Reference Earth Model, Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 25, 297-356