A New Estimate for Brazilian Vertical Data Offset Based on Global Geopotential Models and Height Determinations Through Relative Approach

Abstract

This paper aims to present a new estimate for the vertical offset between both Brazilian vertical data: DVB-I, in Imbituba-SC, and DVB-S, in Santana-AP. Brazilian Fundamental Altimetric Network (BFAN) currently has over 69000 stations with known normal-orthometric heights; 472 of these stations are connected to a tide gauge located in Santana-AP, at the North portion of Brazil, and the other ones are connected to a tide gauge located in Imbituba-SC, at the South portion of Brazil and considered Brazilian's main vertical reference. The vertical offset estimate is based on comparisons between reference and calculated normal-orthometric heights from values obtained arising of discrete GNSS observations on BFAN benchmarks, normal-geoid heights calculated from GGM XGM2016, which has proven to better model this variable in the region, and through a relative approach for heights determination, which has also proven to be the best way to handling the appropriate variables. As a result, a vertical offset of 1.32 m ± 0.07 m was obtained, which is coherent to previous studies performed in the same intent. This study up-comes as a new validation of the employed methodology itself, by achieving satisfactory results through independent manipulation even with low quality of input data for the region.