Evaluation of Ultra-high and High Degree Geopotential Models for Improving the KGEOID98

Recent development of ultra-high and high degree Earth geopotential model opens new avenues to determine the Earth gravity field through spectral techniques to a very high accuracy and resolution. However, due to data availability, quality, and type, the performance of these new EGMs needs to be validated in regional or local scale geoid modeling. For establishing the best reference surface of geoid determination, recent geopotential models are evaluated using GPS/Leveling-derived geometric geoid and the Korean gravimetrical GEOID (KGEOID98) developed by National Geography Institute in 1998. Graphical and statistical comparisons are made for EGM96, GFZ97, PGM2000A and GPM98A models. The mean and standard deviation of difference between geometric height and geoid undulation calculated from GFZ97 are $1.9\pm{46.7}\;cm$. It is shown that the GFZ97 and the GPM98A models are better than the others in the Korean peninsula because the GFZ97 has a smaller bias. It means that the KGEOID98 needs some improvement using the GFZ97 instead of EGM96.