DISCUSSION ON SOME FFT PROBLEMS TO DETERMINE THE GEOID

The aim of this investigation is to study some FFT problems related to the application of FFT to gravity field convolution integrals. And the others, such as the effect of spectral leakage, edge effects, cyclic convolution and effect of padding, are also discussed. A numerical test for these problems is made. A large area of Western China selected for the test is located between 30°N~36°N and 96°E~102°E and includes 1 858 gravity observations on land. The results show that the removal of the bias in the residual gravity anomalies is important to avoid spectral leakage. One hundred percent zero padding is highly recommended for further research of the geoid to remove cyclic convolution errors and edge effects. 1-D FFT is recommended for precise local geoid determination because it does not use kernel approximation.