Comparison of GGMs based on one year GOCE observations with the EGM08 and terrestrial data over the area of Sudan

•We have compared GGMs based on one year of GOCE observations over the area of Sudan.•A new low-pass filtering approach was applied to overcome the spectral inconsistency.•Terrestrial gravity data suffering from accuracy deficiencies may be validated using GOCE-based GGMs.•The GOCE-based GGMs provide important information for GNSS heighting in Sudan.

Since 2010, a series of Global Geopotential Models (GGMs) based on Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite gravimetry mission have been released. In this study, the GGMs based on approximately 12 months of GOCE satellite gravity gradiometry (SGG) data have been compared over the area of Sudan with the EGM08 and terrestrial data. Geoid heights and free-air gravity anomalies from four GOCE/GRACE satellite-only GGMs, and one GOCE/GRACE GGM combined with terrestrial/altimetric gravity data were compared with the corresponding ones obtained from the EGM08, terrestrial free-air gravity anomalies and GNSS/levelling data.The results reveal that geoid heights and free-air gravity anomalies obtained from the GOCE-based GGMs agree with the corresponding ones from the EGM08 truncated to d/o 200 with standard deviation of 18–20 cm, and 3.4–4.2 mGal, respectively. Their agreement with the terrestrial free-air gravity anomalies and the GNSS/levelling geoid heights, in terms of standard deviation is about 5.5 mGal, and about 50 cm, respectively.