• About
• News
• Management
• Scientific Council
• Scientific Centers
  • Geodesy and Geodynamics
    • Projects
    • Research issues
    • Astronomical Almanac
    • Services
    • Publications
    • Staff
  • Centre of Applied Geomatics
  • Remote Sensing
  • Geographic Information Systems and Cartography
• Support Departments
• Patents
• Cooperation
• Public Procurement
• Contests
• Work
• Internship

BalMarGrav

Project title: Homogenized marine gravity maps of southern and eastern Baltic Sea for modern 3D applications in marine geodesy, geology and navigation

The project is co-financed by the European Union under the Interreg Baltic Sea Region 2021/27 program.

Duration of the project: 06/2022 – 12/2024

Project webpage: https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/balmargrav/

Partner Project:

• Institute of Geodesy and Cartography (Poland) – Leader
• Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (Germany)
• Gdańsk University of Technology (Poland)
• Lantmäteriet (Sweden)
• Maritime University of Szczecin (Poland)
• National Land Survey of Finland (Finland)
• Polish Geological Institute - National Research Institute (Poland)
• Riga Technical University (Latvia)
• Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia)
• Technical University of Denmark (Denmark)
• Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Lithuania)

Associated Organisation:

• Agency for Data Supply and Infrastructure (Denmark) 
• Estonian Land Board (Estonia)
• Norwegian Mapping Authority (Norway)
• Latvian Geospatial information agency (Latvia)
• Maritime Administration of Latvia (Latvia)
• National Land Service under the Ministry of Agriculture (Lithuania)

Project Manager : dr hab. Monika Wilde-Piórko, email: monika.wilde-piorko@igik.edu.pl

The project aims to improve the problem of inadequate mapping of the marine gravity field in the southern and eastern Baltic Sea region. Accurate and dense gravimetric measurements are essential for the development of gravity field anomaly maps and a geoid model, which in turn are used in natural resource exploration in geophysics and geology or as a reference in height measurements. In particular, this task is very important due to the decision of the Baltic Sea Hydrographic Commission (BSHC) to move to a common height reference system called BSCD2000, which will be directly based on the geoid model determined by measurements of the Earth's gravity. Harmonization of the datum in the Baltic Sea region will provide vessels with better satellite navigation at sea, thereby it will allow for optimizing their routes and reducing fuel consumption and environmental pollution.

Measurements of gravity at sea carried out according to modern standards are very expensive and time-consuming. In the 1960s-80s, gravimetric measurement campaigns were carried out in the coastal areas of Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, mainly with the support of the Soviet Union's research infrastructure. During the period of independence from the Soviet Union and the political transition, part of this data remained forgotten or unused. The BalMarGrav project aims to build an international network of experts from the Baltic Sea region to rescue and standardize this historical data. During the course of the project, guidelines and methods will be developed to compile historical gravity data in modern geodetic and gravimetric reference systems, which will allow harmonization of these data with modern surveys of the gravity field in the Baltic Sea region. Moreover, the research carried out during the project will answer to what extent historical marine gravity data can be used today to develop a common geoid model for the Baltic Sea region.

Project partners, associated organisations and target groups are mostly government agencies, i.e., geological, geodetic and hydrographic offices/offices, which are national providers of products and services within the scope of their activities. Research institutes or universities are involved in the project due to the fact that in some countries highly specialized tasks related to physical geodesy (gravimetric measurements and geoid modelling), geophysics or geology are provided by national research institutes or universities by legal mandate, as government agencies do not have the required expertise (scientific) required for this type of work.

                                                                                      

The project is co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Education and Science within the framework of the programme entitled Co-financed International Projects - Contract No. 5271/Interreg VI B BSR 2021-2027/2023/2 for the execution of the co-financed international project No. W 59/Interreg VI B Baltic Sea Region 2021-2027/2022

MEiN co-financing for IGiK: 109,467.00 PLN
Total project value: 2,353,838.00 PLN (including for IGiK: 608,219.00 PLN)
Date of signing the contract: March 2023